Catastrophe
by JustOpposed Silbi
Summary: A very important notice at the very end. Please read.
1. I: The Beginning Of

**Disclaimer:** This piece is created based on Naruto series, which is created and solely belonged to Kishimoto Masashi - no profit is made from this piece for it is used resolutely for fun. No copyright infringement intended.

**Warning:** Some cusses and twists. Also, there was no Orochimaru in this piece - none, and never would.

**Author's Note:** Welcome aboard, dear readers, to my first attempt of writing a piece of (crappy) Naruto fan fiction! I do hope you enjoy the cruise, the ups and downs, the make-sense and nonsense, and whatever it is that floats your boat :) Don't forget to tell me how bumpy the journey is by giving me reviews and constructive critics, as you may have lotsa experiences in... So, here it is, as it is.

**XXXXX**

**CATASTROPHE**

_**By Silbi**_

**Chapter One**

Eyes level with her palms, her forehead wearing a frown, Sakura examined the ingredients gathered in her hands closely. Cherry blossom petals, check. Spices, check. Catalyst, check. She fingered them as well as the other ingredients with her free ones, weighing them carefully and then, after she was sure they were all ready, set them on her kitchen table. The pink-haired girl pulled out a small pot from the cupboard and put it on the stove, poured down some water as she turned it on and waited for the water to boil.

Several minutes later, the girl deftly collected the items on the table and dumped all of them unceremoniously into the pot - so much for being 'graceful like a kunoichi', they say, humph - all except for the Catalyst that was meant to be added in the middle of the reaction cautiously, for it was in fact stolen from ANBU headquarters and to waste the liquid would have attracted many unwanted attentions on who might be stealing the stocks. Tapping her fingers impatiently on the cupboard, she watched as the elements blend.

She was perfectly sure that it was going to work. No jounins alive, even her teacher, could evade the potion she had carefully mixed and mastered.

Sakura had seen the significant effect it had on a victim kept in custody by ANBUs - she had a good look on it, on how it was created and used on, good enough to memorize it by heart and applied it herself - and kept it in mind to use it solely on special moments.

Like this one: The excavation of the unseen, behind-the-mask Hatake Kakashi.

Ooh, she couldn't wait to use it on him - she began grinning like mad and stifled a helpless giggle - and be the first to face him in person. Not in a masked, one-lazy-eye-open-and-another-hidden person.

The fifteen-year-old girl just wanted to see it down once. After that... well, maybe they could go on like before, a lazy and hardly punctual teacher and a bunch of energetic teenagers wanting to exceed each other.

Haruno Sakura sighed wearily and leaned back on the counter next to the stove, warm vapor swirled lazily around her, spreading sweet and heady smell that was supposed to materialize by the time it was almost ready to be used.

_But maybe it wasn't that simple_, she thought, and deeply at that.

While she matured, the kunoichi realized she had set another point of view for herself. Lee's unwavering attention with a waggle of his bushy eyebrows that used to annoy her to death now had earned care and an offer of friendship from her; Gai's endless rivalry with her teacher as well as mentor, Kakashi, had finally shown that it was some kind of healthy sparring and a best way of rivaling each other; her light ignorance on Naruto had turned into adoration, and her devotion to Sasuke had...

The pink-haired kunoichi flicked off some strayed spices on her top absently. She really must get that thinking out of her head!

Therefore, she walked lightly across the kitchen to the large cupboard filled with herbs and spices and groceries, opened it, and tip-toed to reach a thick, ancient-smelling book the size of her upper body. Practical Potions, the title in gold read, gleaming dully under the lamp over her. With much effort she heaved the book to the marbles for easier use and looked for a page which corner was neatly folded - it marked for Potions of Enchantment.

Good thing she loved to read and lurk in the shadows of a great library in the center of the village. No one, including the librarian, realized that the girl had collected as many books of secret potions as she could bring, studied them until dark and smuggled one back home in the end. She had looked for a recipe that was similar to the one she discovered back at the ANBU headquarters so she could calculate the time she would need, the efficiency, also search for something more likely to succeed, if there were more. Just her luck, there was one that matched perfectly - and the efficiency was a hundred percent - no wonder ANBUs used them in cases of infiltration.

"Boil water, put in the herbs as listed below, and follow the directions closely unless you want the potion chaotically backfire." She read carefully, forefinger tracing the lines and the illustrations on its yellowing pages, and reread the lines printed in red with a little anxiety. "For this potion is easily altered, you may need extra care such as guidance from a superior, if you are a minor."

Duh. It was her superior she was trying to get on to!

Thick, popping bubbles that came from the pot behind her quickly gathered back her straying attention. Almost tripping on the heavy book in haste, she got up to her feet, head made contact with the sticking ladle in process and almost knocked it out, hands flailing wildly to keep them all in place. She felt a sting on her scalp when she accidentally took a handful of her shoulder-length hair as she took hold of the pot, barely noticing a thing such as a strand of rosy pink hair from her head floating softly before making a soft, hissing land on the greenish substance.

Sakura rubbed her throbbing scalp, eyes momentarily closed as she bit back the pain, without noticing the potion in the pot had exuded a light smoke and changed color.

Feeling better, the pink-haired girl proceeded to fetch the mixture, and lightly stirred it for maximum effect just as suggested by the yellowing book. Seeing a weird hue of color before her eyes, they narrowed as if unbelieving, and a confused expression found an escape past her lips.

"Isn't it supposed to be green?"

The potion that was left to chill inside the pot didn't answer in all of its clear-pink glory.

XXX

Golden sunrays spread across Konoha village, filtering through the shades and woke up people - mostly irritated ones, though of course there were morning people there, too, who wouldn't mind waking up on time and start jogging, and as we could see here, eccentric-haired teacher-and-pupil (who sported eccentric, identical attires as well, and pairs of symmetrical and matching eyebrows which had attracted many more than weirded-out looks) - and without exception, Haruno Sakura.

In another house, a certain blonde hugging a bolster tightly and watering it with his... _natural substances..._ oozing past his open-wide mouth like Niagara Falls.

And in another, a guy whose spiky hair had attracted more ladies than bursting balloons got up with his deadliest glare cast to the wall, as if cursing it for not crumbling around him and saving him from the irksome sunshine that prodded at his tired eyelids. If his fans knew - but of course, they knew everything about him - that he was not at all a morning person, they might have avoided waiting in front of his apartment bringing breakfast as an excuse but deep down considering the chances of bursting in and catching him taking a morning shower or dressing after bath. Sure, he wouldn't be up until seven but then, who was he to drive away the unrelenting girls willing to wait since five a.m. with hands full of free meal?

If only he could say he would prefer hot coffee, with "please" at the end to make it convincing. Easier thought than said, he pointed out to himself.

Some blocks away, Sakura had finished taking her bath and changing, and now was in the middle of brushing her a-bit-past-shoulder-length hair. She caressed the healthy pink strands and untangled them slowly with her comb, wincing every now and then when it caught at petty tangles. She was just about to be finished when the corners of her eyes found a glinting pink on her make-up table, soon registering it as the potion she had kept the night before in a small bottle. Her fingers went down and grasped the bottle lightly between them, playing with its pink reflections for some moments, before then she stuffed it carefully into her pants pocket.

_Soon,_ she admonished herself. _Be patient._

XXX

Team Seven was just walking out of Ichiraku Ramen - all were full after each satisfied themselves with a reasonable amount of extra-sized food, reasoning that it was because after an exceptionally tiring practice why they need meals that much, to their paying teacher's chagrin - when Naruto, so full of ramen he almost couldn't bring himself up to walk home, glanced upwards and saw the massive gray clouds - an almost obvious sign of an impending downpour or and storm.

"Man," the blonde groused, "How am I supposed to get home in time before it rains?"

Sasuke, as cold-fish as ever, commented dryly as he glanced to the graying sky. "Use your brain, fool, run fast - Though with your current state I bet you'll be dripping wet when you get there."

"What! Fine, you're on, Uchiha! Race you back!" he replied with a renewed stamina.

"Dobe, my house's on the opposite lane."

Sakura giggled along with Kakashi's low chuckle, both enjoying the very show they would never get bored of - which was the downright silly scene the never-will-be pair always created. Sasuke turned and trotted back to his house before the demented blonde could create any more complications, and thus the three left walked back home together in comfortable silence.

Half an hour later had passed by when they arrived at Naruto's apartment - Naruto bid them an energetic goodbye as he walked into his room, and with the slamming shut of the door the teacher and pupil continued their short journey.

Since the kunoichi's house was next in their route, Kakashi always dropped her off there himself before proceeding to his house, acting just like a responsible teacher worrying over her welfare. To see his house (any random part of it, she'd be glad if she could merely catch a glimpse of his garden. That, if he had one), Sakura would gladly kill - but then what for if she could eke out the truth from himself right away, the powerful potion in hand?

A small, sly smile slipped into her rather calm face, though it went indistinguishable by the silver-haired jounin from her rather composed feature.

An infernal span of silence started to go noticed, and the pink-haired girl huffed irritably. If Kakashi hadn't started a simple chitchat that was usually initiated by a "Nice weather, isn't it?" by now, he must have started indulging in his infamous copy of Icha-Icha Paradise. _As if he would recover from that addiction_, she thought. Whatever inside must be very entertaining to get her respectable teacher that into the book. Must credit Ero-Sennin for that.

She stole a quick glance to her side - _yep, add a hundred score to my current total, he was reading the blasted thing next to a fifteen-year-old girl and in the middle of a blasted road._ From the thickness of the book and the serious facade he was sporting, he must have been getting to a _very_ good part... Is the book encrypted into alien codes or written in ancient unknown language of some sort? Even a grown-up man with as much control as he had must have a littlest bit of worry, being caught reading a book that would put Kama Sutra to shame, if perchance a passerby see it; she began questioning herself how the infamous copy-nin put all his worries into a closet and had his eyes glued to the book.

Talking about distinctive reactions from a grown-up man next to her...

What about her plan on gaining them?

The grande plan, eh - the grand plan that no jounins can escape from... which is...

Truth be told, she hadn't really thought about it. She was so good at ending plans that she sucked greatly at commencing them. It's not that the potion will expire any minute, right? Also, she heard that Kakashi was on break after completing a long set of tasks, which means she had all the time in the world to think of something. In her head had begun a heated tête-à-tête, despite the term which all of the psychologists proudly called 'a peaceful state of mind'.

_Okay. Firstly, look for an opening that is easy to penetrate._ Uhm. Such as? _Well, many, but unfortunately over than a half were related to the (underscored: unpredictable) weather, including a rainy day and an offer to get a shelter, a sunny day and an offer to serve a refreshment, etc etc._ But all had to lead to the second part: camouflage it as a casualty.

Since she's no good at weaving lies, it had to be the best way. Next... after the camouflaging, is... well, somehow, she should feed him the potion.

Hey, at least she had known how she would end it - "the only thing that matters is the ending", someone said (1) - after she had her ways with him, he would remember nothing. Just nothing, like a dreamless sleep. She would say that he got tired of waiting and slumped onto the table like a sack of potato, and by the time she finally had the tea done he was dead to the world blah blah and all that crap.

When her feet stepped upon familiar pebbles that lined an also familiar path, Sakura was literally startled out of her reverie. Mind strayed, she glanced around in confusion. Right in front of her was her little house. The street across them was empty, since it seemed people were too lazy to take a step out of their shaded houses and go under the stinging sun though it was already evening. There were just the two of them, and her brain registered it as 'a perfect opening at the perfect moment of a perfect plan'.

_Should I, or should I not do it right now?_

Sakura fought the urge to start biting her nails, a habit she found most hard to be rid of since it actually helped her cope with things other than hand-to-hand combat and shuriken and kunai fights, but when her hands almost had its way creeping upwards, fingers to her bared teeth, the object of her plan cleared his throat.

Huh?

"Uhm, what, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked, tried to find the dislocated pieces of her brain and put them back in order.

"You're home, Sakura."

She stared at him in pure disbelief. Yeah, I know, something less obvious than that? "...and?" the kunoichi trailed.

"Eh, can I have some tea please?"

The pink-haired kunoichi's eyes dilated - she did all her might willing herself not to - at the request. She was in the brink of jumping in delight, making an effort of keeping the current plan in her mind set out while trying hard to keep her heels planted on the ground.

Oh goodie! No sweat, first step taken, a voice chirped in her skull in delight.

"Oh, sure, Kakashi-sensei. Come in."

_Did I sound too enthusiastic?_

_No, you didn't_, the inner her commented, _now get the hell going before he changes his mind!_

She unlocked and opened the front door before getting in first, almost rushing to the kitchen to finally get her things and done. "Wait here while I prepare the tea," she motioned for him to wait in her small dining room next to her open kitchen. He sat down calmly and flipped through his orange-colored book. Is there anything else he could do in those moments in waiting? She wondered while fetching a jar of tea leaves in a cabinet over the sink.

_Heh. Try to be so cool ten minutes later and we'll see, Kakashi-sensei._ She cackled evilly in her mind, for once along with her inner Sakura.

The girl put a water-filled kettle on the stove and waited exactly five minutes just before it boiled, turned off the stove and opened the tea jar. She took an amount of the fresh-smelling dry leaves and put it into a flask slowly, and just as gradual she poured down the near-boiling water into the ceramic flask. After waiting for some more minutes to get the best taste out, as she calmed her uneven heartbeat, she fished out the pink potion from her pocket.

The time has come.

The lid became a rather minute obstacle as she wanted to unscrew it, and almost as surprisingly, she realized that her fingers were shaking in mixed anticipation and trepidation.

_What if it fails? What if it backfires?_

The thought assaulted her mind mercilessly, but when the cork was finally off with a light 'pop', the ideas ceased themselves and sat back to the corners of her mind.

Tipping the small bottle carefully over a cup, Sakura let out two drops of the substance and quickly drown them with her carefully brewed tea. She poured some for herself in another cup and eyed both cups in front of her judgingly, making sure that they both look alike. Convinced that the drugged tea on her left-hand side looked inconspicuous, the kunoichi set the tea set on a tray and brought them to the dining room.

"Tea, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked, and seconds later scolded herself for sounding somewhat too damned cunning... hopefully he didn't catch the slightly keen edge in her tone earlier.

The silver-haired teacher looked up from his book, and somehow she thought she'd caught an amused glint in his visible eye - not much she could tell by seeing only one eye when two beholds much more of him. Sakura never had the chance to see them, though, other than in those emergency situations when she could never look him in the eye as she was busied by the sight of his back blocking the danger from her. Nevertheless, she was sure he was at least tickled by something. His voice was a bit teasing to her paranoid ears, too. "Sure, considering the time you've contributed on making a single pot, I think it's worth a sip. I'm parched."

He chuckled as the embarrassed girl, red from cheek to neck, placed the tray and set the tea set on the table before serving him a steaming cup. Kakashi bent down and caught a whiff. "Smells really good, too."

Sakura stood in pathetic distress, hugging the tray close to her breast, hoping that it would calm the erratic beat somehow.

_Will it work?_

_That potion surely get a head first on giving me a heart attack,_ she grouched.

Somewhere in between her fixation on the cup of tea-and-toxic and Kakashi's hand with a book perched comfortably on it, she managed to peek leftwards and took the time. Five minutes past fourteen hundred hours. Meaning: still got plenty of time. Finally her eyes had found another fixation that, at least to her desperate need of distraction, moved.

One thing for sure, she didn't hope to glimpse his mysterious feature from the start. She just knew that he would, in one way or another, partake his tea without giving her an inch-view of the skin under that mask. She only hoped that he would down his tea without realizing a thing - such as his trusted, innocent student actually attempted to drug his tea - and be a good victim. If she ever had the chance to discover his face, to see it long enough to memorize it even, it would just come out as a bonus. A very big one.

Anyway.

_The sooner he touch that goddamned teacup the better!_

"Sakura?"

_What else?_ Her inner self asked sweetly, _Is there a fly in your teacup?_

"Uh... Something's wrong?"

_Please don't tell me he has an ability of making out a difference between a lightly contaminated tea and a pure, innocent one..._

Was it the smell? No, it was written clearly that one couldn't tell by the smell for it had none, the taste was indistinguishable for it was extremely light, and there were no side-effects, unlike sleeping pills that were likely to give the patient nausea or light headache post-usage.

In panic, she began listing sensible answers for questions such as when asked why his tea was slightly pinker she would answer that it was either because of the trick of light or maybe he was too thirsty that he hallucinated or...

The list went on and on, while the copy-nin looked surprised, as though the reason why he didn't taste the tea he had asked half an hour earlier was truly, plainly clear as polished crystal. "I was just wondering why you didn't have a seat and drink with me."

"Oh. Okay."

Sakura idly wondered if she had sounded simple-minded with no variations in responding, all either mono- or di-syllabic.

_Gee, stop being paranoid at once! He didn't have a lead! No matter what he is planning to do, once he drink that stuff he'll sure as hell be clueless!_

Carefully placing the tray on the seat next to her, she brought the teacup to her slightly parted lips, and took a nervous sip under the watchful gaze of her teacher.

"Ahh, nice tea. Think I should get some sweets," she pushed herself from the table without glancing at Kakashi, and quickly strolled to the kitchen, acting as if she was really going to take out a packet of tartlets from her cupboard while the corners of her eyes followed his every move - the raised left elbow, the fingers mechanically hooked just over the mask, the black material slid lower and lower...

Sakura rapidly turned away and took out a plate to put the tartlets she'd managed to take earlier on. She had a deathly grip on the plate, not wanting to let it fall and cause a ruckus while messing up a beautifully crafted plan (if she could call it one). Fingers trembling to the bone, she tore open the plastic wrapper and tipped the packet, the tartlets slid and made contact with the platter silently.

The time the agitated kunoichi looked over her shoulders, she saw Hatake Kakashi, leaning back to the chair and shoulders hunching, head down facing his lap. He was holding the cup in his right hand, forefinger curling around the cup's holder like a statue and was perfectly still. His face was obscured by his own shadow, thus she couldn't tell what he was experiencing from his facial expression. Not much she could see without them anyway.

"...Kakashi-sensei?"

A minute passed without a reaction.

_Did it work?_

Heart thumping faster, she was reminded of a prominent line off the potion-making book: 'A momentary paralysis is expected during the first phase of the potion taking effect,' her mind recited to her all too happily.

_It... It did!_

She remembered to take the tartlets with her. Might be on a sugar high later.

Sakura almost bounced into the dining room like a rubber ball, feeling overjoyed, and as she prepared herself to begin her interrogation she couldn't help but feeling smug - she really would like to know how Naruto and Sasuke's reaction would be when they knew she had seen and caused the downfall of their enigmatic teacher, not to mention taking direct answers to all of the unanswered.

She slowly leaned down, placing her left hand on the table on her left slowly, and spoke calmly to the silent Kakashi - head still down - almost commandingly.

"I demand you to answer the questions I'm about to ask," she said, acting the line she memorized the most from the book: 'Speak in clear, demanding tone, to make sure the victim gets the right idea and answer right away.'

But she didn't expect him to look up and smile.

And to answer in such a soft, chilling tone.

"Tsk tsk... Such assertive language coming from those beautiful lips."

**XXXXX**

**TBC **(Of course!)

(1) Morton Rainey -- Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King... which has been adapted into a movie titled Secret Window. And guess what, the main actor's Johnny Depp, whom I love :)

**Author's Note:** One ruckus to another, many to come. By the way, thanks for reading, honey, and thanks very much if you expect more... Don't forget to tell me all that jazz in a review :) Oh yeah, I might be updating weekly or bi-weekly, depends to the breaks on my schedule and the consent from my smiling muse up there :D


	2. I: Switching Places

**Disclaimer:** This piece is created based on Naruto series, which is created and solely belonged to Kishimoto Masashi - no profit is made from this piece for it is used resolutely for fun. No copyright infringement intended.

**Warning:** Cusses, twists, no Orochimaru. That pretty much covered all :)

**Author's Note:** Aah, here it is, the second chapter! Pardon me for updating a day earlier, can't help it :3 Oh yeah, sorry if the spacing and the paragraph separators were weird, they all were removed (I tried every kind, from asterisks and lines and they're all gone! I almost freaked out) so I have to put them on-line. Thanks to my first reviewers, you know who you are ;) Those kind words had made my whole week, sunny day, blue sky and all... Love you guys who read, reviewed, and favored my story. I really, really appreciate them.

One more: Sorry if you got double update alert since it was just me adding this note. Do you think it's better if I break down the chapters into smaller parts? Because, considering the generosity of FFnet for removing some of the formatting, it is hard for me to reread them on-line as well as edit it. If you also think that by breaking down the chapters Cat will be easier to read, do tell me... Now, on to the show :)

**XXXXX**

**CATASTROPHE**

_**By Silbi**_

**Chapter Two**

She froze at once.

Ice seeped into her bones and into her brain, scaring her in more ways than one, taking turns with the confusion that scared the senses and coherence out of her mind. Outside, the sky rumbled as if wanting to add the fear that almost took over the tiniest sliver of control left in her - the light outside died bit by bit until the room was dark, only helped by a neon lamp over them and another in the kitchen.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Hmm, those lips _are_ beautiful." The corners of his eyes crinkled, stating that under that dark mask Kakashi was grinning mischievously.

_What is WRONG? It wasn't like this when THEY did it..._

Sakura's mind replayed a view, a rather catatonic one that still gave her chills: a guy, hands bound behind him and the chair, head bowed deeply and hair messy, his breath labored. He struggled against the binding that kept him unmoving once, weakly, and surrendered at that umpteenth try. Circling him were ANBUs, rigid and elegant behind their masks, and one then advanced the helplessly bound guy. She remembered who it was - it was easy to make out by the tattoo on his upper arm she had once seen, and that particular mask she had been dreaming of having.

It was Kakashi, her teacher.

"Tell me who sent you, or your fingers will have to substitute for your silence."

She held her breath in shock. She had never seen him on a mission, especially one involved with extracting information from a foolishly obstinate prisoner, and hearing her silent teacher demanding with such a cold tone she wondered how much effort the poor guy should muster not to flinch and spill the beans at once. If it was uttered amongst Team Seven, the kunoichi and the others would just suspect that it was only an empty threat thrown at them for goofing around endlessly all day and missing practices - but this one promised that he would indeed break the other's fingers one by one for every question avoided.

Only labored breath filled the silence following, and coming at a conclusion that the prisoner hadn't intended to ever answer the inquiry, the copy-nin took a step forward in a challenging manner, flexing his arms and cracking his fingers. "If that suits you - "

Sweat drenching the petrified kunoichi's palms, her hands pressed onto the wall almost desperately for support.

_Is he really going to do it?_

Her guts twisted and turned unpleasantly she almost gagged.

"No."

Kakashi stopped dead in track to his prisoner's utter relief, as everyone could see from his relaxed face, raised his head and met his fellow ANBU's eyes behind their masks, head cocked aside as if asking for the obvious. _Why, pray tell, shouldn't I?_

Sakura watched them battled in silence, and after a few seconds, Kakashi retreated. He huffed disparagingly and uttered a word at his ordinate, "Potion."

She saw his partner stiffened, yet he hastily moved to do his task and made his way out - wait! That meant passing by her and catching her, an underage kunoichi, red-handed eavesdropping on a supposedly classified conversation and seeing what she shouldn't have that not even all jounins have...

Eyeing an open door next to the room, and knowing that she wouldn't be seen behind the door, the blind corner she was situated on until the guy was fully outside and by the time she would be safely hidden, Sakura frantically made her escape and as she reached the end of the wall, launched herself into the darkness of the room and disappeared from sight. Letting out her breath, yet choked on it when she heard nearing footsteps, she pressed her eyes close and didn't move a muscle until the footfalls passed her location and proceeded across the corridor to fetch the said material.

What material, actually, that can make even an ANBU discouraged for a split second? They are an elite team, and it surely takes much to do so.

In indecision her lips trembled - it was a leakage she was about to discover, and if that was let out and heard by Tsunade none of them will survive - the team for letting it slip, and her for collecting the forbidden information instead of playing it safe and go home like any other good ninjas. Nevertheless, her mind kept chanting a mantra that almost no human being had ever escaped, _All or nothing, now or never..._

Sakura was soon hot on the ANBU-on-duty's heels, doing her utmost to learn at the same time how he moved across the corridor with so much confidence and memorize the places she had passed by in case of emergency. The ANBU went into a room that smelled a lot like traditional herbs with hints of chemical substance and a subtle smell of alcohol, and she watched him deftly collecting the items from the cupboard, preparing the potion in efficient moves, soon finished and bringing the small bottle containing the potion. He strode hastily back to the door, potion safely in hand.

Sakura was still watching, soon realizing her mistake as soon as her position set all of her mind alarms on wildly.

_Shit._

Quickly dashing back to her previous hideaway, hoping for her rotten luck to improve, she cursed the fifth Hokage all the way for sending her in such a simple task of taking reports that brought her this much problem.

However, her youthful naivety had not improved - at the time, rather than cute and attractive, it stated that she was sloppy - given that giving in to her curiosity, she went back to her corner and finally got the chance to watch how the potion worked. Sakura saw Kakashi being handed the small bottle, saw him uncapped it, left hand grasped the bound man's jaw and forced his mouth to open, another hand tipped the bottle down a little and the substance sliding into the retching guy's throat, the gurgle dying in his mouth as he swallowed...

The guy's head slipped off Kakashi's grasp like a dead meat, hung low and unmoving, like everyone in the room.

"I demand you to answer my question this time, Ninja."

Obviously a shock for Sakura, the guy answered banally, almost like a machine, or worse - a zombie. "Yes, Master."

"Who sent you to this village on a mission of assassination?"

She was even more flabbergasted as the guy who had been so loyal, so unwilling to answer the deadly question that would bring his death and his tribe's, no matter who they were, simply forgotten all of it and gave them all the information he got like he was talking about the weather - who was his boss, who was he, and a constellation of answers for Kakashi's every purposeful word...

Much later in the present, back at Sakura's dark kitchen in the near-evening, the pink-haired kunoichi eyed her drugged teacher in confusion and curiosity, and when he winked at her, she declared that curiosity did kill a cat. _Lots_ of cats.

_What did he do that for? A WINK? Come on! He's obviously on crack!_

With burning anger, she demanded hotly while fighting the blood that quickly rose to her cheeks and warmed them, "Who are you? Where is Kakashi-sensei?"

Hatake Kakashi - no, she hadn't known yet about that - in front of her rested his chin on his interlaced fingers and huffed. "Hatake Kakashi, Kakashi-sensei, an ANBU as well as a jounin... yes, I'm him, whatever you may call your dearest sensei."

A thunder blared, the light illuminated the darkened room for a split second from behind Kakashi, made him look like a serial killer for a second with that shadowed eye and masked feature, an attentive eye never straying from her. The odd part was she didn't feel apprehension clawing on her guts, just like it had always been when she or her friends encountered danger. The feeling was like a premonition to her, so in her case at the moment, it could be a good sign or a veeeeeeeery bad sign.

Sakura seethed. _Whoever this is, he's playing his part too damn well - though he didn't sound a bit like Kakashi-sensei. His voice is too... lilting._

"I see," she said between gritted teeth, trying to be conversational, "So, where's Pakkun?"

"Ah, interrogating one with one's closest friend, clever. He's at home, safe and sound, munching through his dinner and licking at his paws."

_He does know. That does prove much. But then again, why does he - his personality - change completely?_

Seeing her inner turmoil, amusement began to dance in the Kakashi-alike's eyes.

Yet, with bruised pride and swelling curiosity, she tried to move on with her former plan. Ask and look for the answers to the unanswered.

_...what were they again?_

The unpredictable result that was Kakashi's sudden change had brainwashed her, and her mind was totally blank at the moment she only stood there, looming over his figure, mind racing for a start. Sweat started to dampen her ivory skin above her eyebrows and her back.

"What is it that you want to know about me?" the voice came up and once again startled her to the core, the deep tone softly spoken scaring here like nothing else. A less than articulate Kakashi was typical, she was after all used to face two icicles a day - but a more articulate one with a pleasant timbre and persuading tone was intimidating alright.

"Don't be so reluctant, Sakura-chan," he said encouragingly, before pouring himself more tea and sipped it calmly.

"Eh... do you smoke?" she finally blurted.

Sakura wanted to die of embarrassment that very moment. What kind of stupid question is that? Yes, that was clever - _I'm going to be his munching toy_, the inner her wailed, and yes, Sakura thought that it was a rather suitable idiom for her current state. A thoroughly munched toy. _After all of this I'm going to do myself in_, she swore piously. _All I need is a rope, a knife, and a goodbye letter._ She needed to plan for her coffin and where it would be buried six feet under...

Her stomach did a flip-flop when he chuckled at her less-than-rational question. _Gah, stop that already, Whoever-You-Are-Oh-Soft-Spoken-Copy-Of-Kakashi, Sakura thought, it's giving me creeps._

"Sometimes I do."

The pink-haired girl was snapped out of her thoughts. "You do?" She said in disbelief. _Gee, a miracle you hadn't burnt a hole on your mask. Hard to keep it on while smoking a cig, huh?_

She wrestled with her inner self, and after a grueling battle, avid hair-pulling and censored cussing, the devious half was finally locked in a cupboard and put to silence.

"Yes, I do. Though, as I said before, only on rare occasions do I revert to that habit."

Sakura started to get cramps from looming over him for too long in a tense form, so she lowered herself and took a seat cautiously across him. It felt better, though she was still on guard and her muscles were strung taut, ready to deliver an alarming blow if deemed necessary.

She thought of one possibility - that the one before her might be someone in disguise and was in an unknown mission, perhaps one from another village. She knew that Konoha must have a few rivals, those who wouldn't think twice to risk sending in a spy. But - here's the most puzzling part, and no matter how hard she think it over in the limited time she was allowed she hadn't gotten a clue yet - who was strong enough to pass her and his guard? Hers he might have passed, she was a bit distracted earlier by the potion and the tea she was preparing, but passing Kakashi's - it almost made no sense to her. Her teacher was a certified jounin and an ANBU, after all, and was often sent in several high-ranked missions, not to mention the lists of missions succeeded.

If it was truly someone else in disguise, and that someone had truly passed their guards, both their lives and the village were in unimaginable jeopardy.

All because of her and that stupid potion.

"You do look stressed, Sakura-chan. What is it that bothers you?"

_Nah, it can't be - it just can't. That tone and that way of speaking is absurd_, she laughed inwardly. _Though I haven't ever imagined how Kakashi can pull it off so well. I'll get used to it in no time._

Sakura paused. She didn't know why she thought of it that way.

Maybe - just maybe - a part of her knew that she'd have a pretty long while to become acquainted with him in the future. Another part hardly gave a damn and went on chatting with the mysterious guy, every seconds passing getting more and more unnoticed by the oblivious pair.

Or maybe, she just wasn't ready for the real Kakashi. This was what she wanted, right? Well, a bit deviated, she wanted him to open up and rip that doomed mask off and talk to her about anything that resulted in him wearing such guard all the time, but if she could still get the truth-revealed part and cut off the mask-dismantling part, she could bear with that. The truth was never likeable, and facing it she had even make up such a weird and ill-conceived assumption that it was someone trying to infiltrate the circles of Konoha ninjas... Sakura wanted to laugh at herself.

_You just need a guy, Sakura,_ she heard Ino said in her head. _Don't waste your beauty in such a young age!_

_Or... maybe it was because you have already found someone?_

Ino was her best friend and she would always will be, but sometimes, she was just way too optimistic. _Life can't be such a humorist to matchmake me with..._

She paused, seeing Kakashi on the other side of the table, elbows on tabletop, staring at her intently. Warm blush tinted her cheeks as she uttered a defiant "What?"

"Your eyes... they were just mesmerizing, if I may be so bold."

Sakura's eyes widened marginally.

It was well past nighttime when she felt her eyes getting droopy and throat sore of all the talking and laughing, forgetting all of her hunches about her teacher and soon realized that she did get along well with the other him, although she wasn't conscious enough to remember all that jazz.

The other one, the tall jounin, stood after watching her sleep contentedly and smiled - then, in a blink of an eye, a shadow (or something dark enough, slick enough to be called that) removed itself from the teacher's body, slipped down to the floor and disappeared into the night through the shaded window behind him, leaving the copy-nin's body to slump over to the table and lay unmoving, making a scene of two bodies sprawled opposite each other artfully, both dead to the world - that, until one of them woke up first hours later and felt his blood froze at the sight he woke up to, despite the fact that the sun shone brightly enough through the shades and beat at his skin.

XXX

What made Haruno Sakura realize that she was in the old, real world was the unfamiliar cold wood her cheek was pressed onto and the cramps she was getting all over for sleeping in a wrong, twisted position all night long.

"Unn..." She grimaced as she pulled herself off the table, blood rushing to her numb cheek and her sleep-hazed brain unpleasantly, hurting in all the right places. Those facts were forgotten when her eyes had adjusted to the blinding sun (God, how she would like both her eyes behind her head protector and get some more sleep uncaring about how crazy must she look with lion mane-like pink hair, rumpled clothes and a trendy Konoha eye protector to complete her fashion) and saw Kakashi, sitting coolly and loosely as you please with arms crossed, though he did look a bit tense. Warmth and geniality she had become acquainted with last night had gone from his visible eye.

_Sure_, the inner self of her piped up without sounding a wee bit sleepy on the contrary to her state of near rigor mortis right now, _who wouldn't in a case of waking up to an underage student of the opposite sex in her house and not remembering the tiniest bit detail of last night's activities, and one had an effing hangover?_

"...Kakashi-sensei?"

Yup, she was not feeling verbal right now. All that the pink-haired girl needed was a glass of water and a toothbrush, for morning breath was a total killer and she couldn't speak to him with cyanide-smelling breath and throat producing voice much like a desperate frog in near end of mating season.

Seeing her squinting and threatening to slouch forward again, the copy-nin started, "We need to talk - "

"Later."

...and was cut off. He followed her figure dragging her steps to his bathroom - yes, it brought a little relief to him when he found she actually knew where it was in that messed-up state - and let her be, letting his pupil find a way of completing the morning ritual of hers. They would talk a lot later, and he wanted her to be fully prepared and alert enough for that.

_In the bathroom - _

Sakura repeatedly bumped her forehead without sound to the oval mirror before her over the sink, every connection with the lightly abused mirror she muttered "stupid" endlessly like there was no tomorrow, but then, fully acknowledging that she had a, perhaps, highly pissed off teacher waiting for her patiently outside and wanting to discuss the matter at hand with her, she ceased the pattern and quickly grabbed a toothbrush at random and brushed her teeth furiously.

In her mind, neon red, blinking words of "Mission Totally Blown-Up" mocked her and made her want to weep. The girl brushed her teeth harder and it helped to erase the neon red words from her brain for a short while, but the pain and the shame in her didn't slip away. She spat out the toothpaste foam distastefully into the sink and rinsed the acrid taste in her mouth. Splashing a handful of cold water to her face and sputtered and coughed as she accidentally swallowed some, Sakura tried to overcome the fear that was creeping up to her guts, the fear that Kakashi, her best and closest teacher ever, was deeply mad at her and couldn't wait to turn her in to Tsunade for breaking the law by stealing materials from ANBU headquarters to create a restricted potion and use it on a jounin who was none other than her own mentor. Hatake Kakashi himself, that is.

She didn't have nine lives, so she would sure as hell end miserably there.

The agitated girl wiped most of the water off her face with her palms and stared at her reflection on the mirror. _God,_ she winced as she inspected her tired face, _I looked like I'm ten years older with all those dark circles under my eyes._

Tearing her gaze off the mirror she swung her legs to the bathroom door, opening it all the while unconsciously lowering her gaze to the floor as she walked back to the kitchen, where it all started. The girl walked past the table and chairs, and stopped. Sakura saw feet with sandals, crossed at the ankles casually - actually that's the only things she dared to see, she didn't dare bringing up her gaze to meet his and got bombarded by unspoken questions she knew he must be conveying through that one eye visible.

An uncomfortable silence filled the two-meter space between them, her eyes fixed to stare at Kakashi's feet and all the suddenly fascinating floor around them and his fixed at his flabbergasted student, both waiting for the next move from the other, which happened to be five minutes later when Sakura opened her mouth wanting to break the silence and halted by Kakashi who quickly strode past her.

It stung.

She gasped at his brashness, and yet knowing he was not the one to be blamed she shut her lips and held back the tears welling in her eyes, only to have them suddenly useless as the trembling kunoichi heard him say this from the other room:

"Be back soon, morning breath's a killer."

Her balled fists fell open and Sakura breathed deep, feeling her burden lightened somehow. A small smile even dared to slip onto her face. Hearing this, she also noticed that his humoring tint and his concision came back all of the sudden after a whole night of lilting tone and gentleman-like string of words, which had sounded ancient compared to the usual Kakashi Sakura had known for a long time. Totally different, not saying much unless required and had a, sometimes, dry sense of humor was what she knew of his _real_ side... his current side. Now the other one - she recalled hearing such way of talking from an old hag living in a small house next to a herb shop, hers selling a traditional one, and she looked like she was over a century old with all that wrinkles and bones protruding from her small, withering figure.

At the moment, Sakura was not one to make a hypothesis with so little information, so she shut down all the processes in her brain and waited patiently for Kakashi to come back to the kitchen.

XXX

"Neither of us is going to win, dobe, so you better step off that bridge. It's unnerving seeing you getting all jittery up there."

"But he's always an hour late - "

"You're betting on an hour late and I was betting on _half_ an hour late, but judging from the sun above our heads I'd say we both should go home since he's not coming."

"Maybe he'll show up in five minutes!"

"I lost count on how many have you said that today, dobe. Now save us all the trouble and let's go home."

"But - "

"That's it, I'm leaving."

"Hey, come back, Uchiha!"

"Dobe."

XXX

"So..."

The girl's lips twitched. It hurt badly only wanting to shut up!

"I don't understand a bit of this, Sakura. What happened yesterday?"

A dark shadow underneath the table crept up her knees unnoticed, and lunged forward as it merged into her lithe body, starting from her toes and up to her back. Her emerald eyes sparkled and she quickly answered, getting all whispery and profound as she said this:

"Not all that unpleasant, Kakashi-sensei, we just spent some quality time."

Sakura felt a dizzying wave strike through her and for an instance, she felt a sensation of being separated from her body, yet she was still inside her skin and staring through her eyes, only blurred and it was as if looking through a gray shade - nothing like her clear view she had always had. What was more, she got totally terrified when she opened her mouth and spoke breathily at her teacher.

She herself shivered at those words, memorizing clearly how cunning, how different her voice sounded - how aged it sounded - despite the knowledge that it had come from the same throat past the same lips, hers. Time ticked by painstakingly as she took in the fact that her senses were sent to her in halves, she almost thought she had misheard the words but she believed her ears all too deeply since it was the only thing she could rely onto at the moment. The petrified girl willed herself to say a word to meet nothing but a resistance, and in a rush, an epiphany launched itself into her mind and boggled it.

Her body was controlled by another force.

And she didn't know what - or _who_ - was doing so.

**XXXXX**

Ah, **TBC**.

**Author's Note:** Many thanks for you guys for bearing with me and reading this second chapter... You know, the most difficult part in this story is making the first and the second. Hopefully the journey will last, ne:) Oh yeah, here's enlightenment for you: I'm done with the third and the initiation of the fourth. Don't forget to review, dears, and have a good day! ;)


	3. I: Acquaintance

**Disclaimer:** This piece is created based on Naruto series, which is created and solely belonged to Kishimoto Masashi - no profit is made from this piece for it is used resolutely for fun. No copyright infringement intended.

**Warning:** Dirty words, twists, and a manic fic writer. Oh yeah, no Orochimaru.

**Author's Note:** To the two people I've promised the Sunday update to, _I'M TERRIBLY SORRY!_ It turned out that I was dragged away for a two-day party out of town and I suddenly had to finish a forgotten job of translating and I know you don't want to hear all that lame excuses, I know it was still in my weekly or bi-weekly estimation but I am still sorry for breaking such a vow... Dedicated to ArishaGinkaze and SilverGhostKitsune and all of my readers out there. Huhuhu. Hope you enjoy the ride :)

**XXXXX**

**CATASTROPHE**

_**By Silbi**_

**Chapter Three**

The moment his student pulled herself off her seat and stood, moving her limbs as if she had just reattached them and was examining how they worked, Hatake Kakashi did the only thing he thought was the safest: he remained seated and watched. Testing the words on his lips himself, since he thought he had just lost his voice of the odd occurrence, he replied after what he could call a really long pregnant pause.

"What... did we spend?"

To see those lips stretching and forming a smile was terrifying as well - an inch to the left, then an inch to the right, simultaneously creeping upwards into a wide arc that qualified itself as a wide smile, lips parted a bit, showing gleaming white teeth lined up perfectly.

It was true horror, really.

"Some quality time." Sakura replied uncannily. The lopsided smile was still etched on her gorgeous face, and that, to Kakashi, was more unnerving than hearing the breaking news that Gai wanted to have a change in his style of haircut and shave the bowl-head clean before shrugging off his latex attire and sporting a yellow Buddhist monk garb.

Her emerald orbs flashed red once, before turning back to clear green - and still bearing the smile, Sakura bent forward to rest her elbows on the table, said action stretching her clothes tight around her ample backside and streamlining her slim body, making a plunge in the front that gave the silver-haired jounin a rather... _stirring_... view, the slits on each side of her dress (which were showing the latex-clad thighs inside, and Kakashi blinked away his merry thought of what was more, hidden behind that dress) were not helping either...

There were two words of choice in Kakashi's head: "Hospital" or "Aspirin".

The first sounded friendlier - and he contemplated the possibility of nailing some fresh medic-nins on-the-job... he Chidori-ed his head gladly right after - thus he carefully asked the unstable girl before him to visit someone in the hospital with him, in fact meaning only to bring her to Tsunade and asked for help; for every trick in his head did not seem to apply to 'a state of unidentified senility on a victim of exorcism'.

Much to the silver-haired jounin's relief, his pupil stood up and stopped strutting her stuff; but that smile was never put off until they were right in front of the Konoha hospital, where Sakura acted like she had just come to her senses and looked at Kakashi questioningly.

XXX

"She's fine."

Tsunade turned off a small light, removing her thumb and index finger from Sakura's eyelids after a pupil examination. The young girl next to the fifth Hokage sat with legs dangling off the examination table, eyes cast nowhere, baffled. Kakashi, who had been watching the examination from the very beginning, seemed unpleased that his hunch was unproven.

"If I may ask for another examination - "

"Whatever you may accuse her of having, Kakashi, I can assure you that now it's gone and she's perfectly well physically and mentally..." she trailed off, and Kakashi raised a challenging eyebrow, "...though I cannot explain the partial disconnection she claimed she had." Tsunade finished with a tired huff, seeming unsatisfied herself that she could not remedy the anomaly at hand.

The silver-haired jounin stood in silence, contemplating a next move, and eventually (after tiring himself in such a poised pose, his back aching - Kakashi heard imaginary snickers in his head, sounding awfully like a duo from Team Seven, practically sniggering something like _"Heh, you're old."_) he decided to take on the matter himself and line up a set of useful acts - one was to bring the girl away from Tsunade, and the next was the pure, plain, simple act of Questions and Answers session between him and the unsuspecting girl.

"If that is the case, Tsunade." Kakashi finished the sentence in a rather too much of a cliffy way, but though so, it was a mean of his enigmatic way of asking for a full authorization of a serious case at the moment. A nod from the respected healer reaffirmed his will, thus he motioned for his pupil to walk out of the hospital alongside him.

XXX

Balmy air and clear blue sky surely didn't improve her foul mood - Sakura strolled back to her house like an unbalanced zombie with Kakashi, who had been keeping an eye on her like she was an asylum patient who'd just been caught after a runaway...

_Okay, he's not that bad. I just feel like crap and I'm blaming him for all it's worth - he was just being nice and here I am, bitching about it._

Absentmindedly she twirled a lock of pink hair - but then she felt a chill when she felt not a silky texture, but something unlike hair, rough and weathered like dried grasses. She touched the top of her head with her right hand, soon feeling through her hair with her ten furious fingers. Her prided crown was a total mess! _I really need to know what's behind the ever-staying bowl-cut hair of Lee and Gai-sensei..._

Noticing the uneasy air around them not too long after, Sakura brought her gaze up and inspected Kakashi on her side. Eyes straight forward - _is he straight? I wonder... he did wink at a cute male bartender... no, it was when he was drunk, plus it was Genma who told the story, he loved to spice up so-called 'bland' stories and rechristened them as real_ - and she saw fists balled on his sides. Suddenly reminded that she was the one who played around with classified potions and attempting to use it on her mentor, of all people, the pink-haired kunoichi kept her silence; though it was rather improbable that Kakashi with his guards high was a result of her underlying blunder.

Given such a journey of tranquility, the unsolved riddles sprung back into her brain: _Why did Kakashi give such a reaction? What happened next? How come I woke up remembering almost nothing after the Soft-Spoken's appearance?_

_The book said the potion is easy to alter, right? Remember something suspicious in the process?_ Her inner self helpfully sang-song. Sakura actually considered bashing the nuisance with a gigantic mallet (despite her piece of advice did make sense) if she hadn't been lurking in her skull and if she hadn't been her another self.

_What I did? I stumbled over the cursed book, knocked the ladle, and pulled my hair as I kept anything in place. _

_That didn't sound normal enough..._

_I know._

_You're forgetting an essential part here, you're supposed to do it under the supervision of a teacher, right?_

Sakura stopped trying abruptly. Enough for the guilty trip today.

Later on, crunching sound of trampled grass made itself known as she wandered away from the main path, her legs felt wobbly yet they made their way surely across the clearing to a darker path that went deeper and deeper she couldn't see the end.

Konoha village's outskirts were well surrounded by a wide range of untouched nature: forests, deserts, mountains, and all of them had several paths leading to if not other villages then to other countries. To be a ninja or kunoichi, you are expected to memorize all of the descriptions on the book, recognize it when presented, and know the ways in or out. The view she was seeing didn't fit anything described on the book or the map she had seen, though being such a smart pupil Sakura couldn't digest the fact that she had probably missed the information of the place she was artlessly walking into.

Sakura stepped on low and high grasses, dodging protruding tree barks and dead trunks everywhere surrounding her small feet confidently - she felt like something had taken over her limbs, as if her brain was suddenly switched to auto-pilot to a far coordinate - but the pink-haired kunoichi felt a sense of recognition that told her she had used the path many times since a long time ago...

_"...Sakura?..."_

The girl blinked owlishly and stopped dead on her track, taking in the eerie surrounding before her that was obscured lightly by silvery fog; again the déjà vu feeling washed over her thoroughly, the forgotten cells in her brain danced into motion yet bringing her no clue.

They were just... there. The shadowy shack with red shades, the bamboo trees rustling in the blowing wind, the fish pond lined by smooth dark pebbles, all taking most of her attention and helped her forgetting the voice that beckoned to her earlier. The light behind the deep red shades of the window flickered, and a shadow of a lady coming to her feet slowly came into view.

"Sakura?"

The startled kunoichi whirled back, searching eyes meeting Kakashi's bewildered ones; she was momentarily mute and her mouth flapped open-and-shut like a dehydrated fish. How could she get here - ?

"Sakura, where are you going? _Where_ are you taking us?" Kakashi demanded furiously, gripping his flabbergasted student on her shoulders and shook her hard.

Haruno Sakura turned around in hope of giving him a more understandable explanation - and met an empty clearing, all that had been there had been gone with swirling silvery fog in their wake.

From under Kakashi's feet, a black shadow snaked upwards and attached itself onto the teacher's body, starting from his calves and upwards to the back of his head.

Sakura stared hard at the empty ground, wishing for the view she had seen to come back and be her evidence, her only evidence, a somewhat futile attempt - it was not brought to her brain as she received a hard blow just behind her neck, successfully sending her plummeting downwards to a pair of strong, waiting arms that looped themselves under her knees and around her shoulders, securing the unconscious girl in his hold and proceeded to swagger out of the maze of fog and darkness.

XXX

"Kakashi-sensei, why are you THIS late again? And where have you been? I'm losing bets here while you - _Sakura?_"

"Get off, dobe, you're blocking her air passage. Sakura, are you alright?"

"Today's class is dismissed; you can practice by yourselves while I take care of her."

Crickets sang and cows flew up high, Orochimaru passed by them wearing a pink tutu and slippers and nobody had seemed to notice (...that was an expression similar to 'a pregnant pause'), for they were too discomfited seeing the teacher's retreating back, taking the unconscious pinkhead away.

"Did he actually said 'I' before 'take care of her'?"

"Yes."

"Naruto, close that cavern before it attracts flies."

XXX

The 9-scale Richter earthquake couldn't rival the headache Sakura was having - she had a very weird imagination in mind, which showed that she had just visited an old house in a God-forsaken place, fog was everywhere covering the view, and collided with a silver-haired rhino that could do a thousand push-ups on its... one toenail... and after knocked her into oblivion it carried her out of the dark, unknown place, back to Konoha village if the bamboo forest hadn't been anywhere in that area... she didn't remember how she could lay there in the warm nest of crumpled bed sheets. Sakura opened her eyes as far as two identical slits and performed a technical task of identifying her position.

Current status: Sprawled on an unknown bed, looking up to an unknown ceiling.

_Gosh. You do look very artistic,_ her inner self commented rather snidely, and Sakura winced as her wandering palms rubbed at the back of her neck - it throbbed painfully, and though her fingers had done their best to minimize the pain, she knew that it'd leave ugly bruises of blue and black.

_At least it's on the nape of your neck - you got one and they'll actually think all that you've got is a goddamned hickey from your teacher._

A slip from her other self stopped her rubbing abruptly. _My teacher - ?_

She looked to her side and gasped at the sight of a silvery sweep wearing a Konoha headband.

Narrowing her eyes into millimeter-wide slits, the view presented itself clearly; it was neither a sweep nor a cactus wearing a headband, it was the back of her teacher's head, leaning back onto the bed slightly as he was sitting on the floor comfortably, one knee bent to support an extended arm.

Swallowing hard, her mouth feeling like it was stuffed with cotton to the throat, she managed to croak, "Kakashi-sensei?"

Her mentor inclined his head and gave her a hidden smile. "Already awake, now, Sakura-chan?"

_Oh, no, not again..._

Even from the back, Sakura knew that it wasn't anymore her Kakashi-sensei.

Her shoulders slumped visibly as she willed her body to be sucked into a deep hole, earning a low chuckle from the seemingly possessed jounin. He turned to face her and his right hand was raised towards her surprised face - Sakura held her breath, teeth digging into her lower lip, half-expecting some kind of a blow to be delivered, think motionless, she chanted inwardly...

...yet it was only Kakashi's big palm that made a move, and it was harmless, aimed to cover her forehead. Sakura lay still on her position - stomach flush to the bed, upper body off the bed and supported by her bent elbows. In the stillness of time, Sakura's other self saw a fat chance to pester her.

_Ugh, now he'd realize it is wider than it seemed..._ Shutup you! _See? He's astonished at the size of your forehead_ - Who gave you a permission to prance around anyway?

The feel of Kakashi's right palm placed on her forehead was almost forgotten as she battled life and death with her other self, yet every passing minute the sensation came back ten-folds - now fully aware of their close proximity and the hand on her forehead, blushing profusely, Sakura looked away in search of a distraction other than the dreadfully understanding gaze her teacher was giving her.

When he pulled his hand away, finished checking her temperature, she released a deep breath she had too long been holding in relief. Her head fell between her bent elbows to rest on the soft sheets, attempting to kill the tingling on her forehead, hot where it had been touched - it had been comforting, and she didn't know why she had expected the hand to be so - the sudden act pulled the aching muscles on her nape taut, and she groaned softly as it brought her eyes swimming in unclear haze. Her hand flew up to rub the sore spot, hoping to lessen the strain.

_Good thing he is not a medic nin_, the infamous Inner Sakura commented. _He can set anything on fire with those pair of strong hands, I tell ya. _

_Stop being delusional, Sakura._

She raised a confused eyebrow at the odd exchange of words in her head.

_What else those hands are good at_ - I'm not listening to you, lalala! - _you can obviously imagine by yourself, just add some creativity._

Wild cackles accompanied the grand entrance of her unbound imagination, sent her blushing to the roots of her formerly pink hair. _Okay. Now I look sick_.

_Hands, the back of his hands smoothing over her cheek, lower and lower, now to her neck, her hair stand on end -_

"It seems that you are fine, Sakura. All that you need is a rest."

_Fine? Don't try to check my temperature ever again, you - you mindless smut-reading face-hiding prick..._

Sakura realized she ran out of colorful words to address her teacher, mostly because she hadn't meant them at all. He had been caring, not acting like a royal jerk like she was trying to accuse him of, and that supplied her an amount of control.

Kakashi spared her some time for herself, perhaps he thought she really needed some slack, and she used that to think some more - an activity she'd found entertaining lately. She needed something to keep her mind busy and working and leave nothing for her creative imagination, so to speak.

Something advantageous from her position now, cheek pressing to the bed and her face far from Kakashi's scrutinizing eye over her, she could imprint the view of Kakashi's so-called sanctuary on her brain _(no one has never been here, I can tell...)_. Moreover, she could speak her mind out without having to look suspiciously guilty.

None louder than a whisper, the pink-haired kunoichi said, "Who are you?"

_Argh, even my lips AREN'T cooperating with me! What else am I going to say, 'Are you my knight on a shining armor, ready to help me out of a mortal peril?'_

If looks could burn holes, she must've been a chunk of holey Cheddar cheese right then; by the burning feeling on her back Sakura knew her dearest teacher was performing a thorough inspection on her, pondering her meaning and reasons behind that ambiguous question of hers. She did mean what she asked. She understood a hundred percent why she asked the question, and intended to get the truthful answer no matter what.

The pinkhead waited patiently for a generous reply as she looked about, smiling at the sight of a small pot of plant on the windowsill under the beautiful moonlight that filtered in, praising his tidiness (that made up for his lateness, but seriously, who had seen that extra point?), soon aware of the lack of furniture inside.

And soon she, too, was aware of a thing. Means of avoiding the question, the kunoichi could bear with; but she was not much of a silent person, thus his sudden abstinence from the whole dialogue made her saw it was fit to look him in the eye and demand for an answer. Yeah, she could bear with the trauma of having her lips called sexy, meant she had undergone a mild sexual harassment without much discomfort, and she could like hell demand for an innocent answer. Where's the harm in that anyway?

Haruno Sakura was a trained kunoichi, a genius and a hard worker at that. She could easily pass written tests and get easy perfect scores, no doubt at that. People, however, had unfortunately claimed based by various life experiences that all that you need isn't always in the book, which is so true on Sakura's case. You could say that she almost fell off the bed the moment Kakashi, again, caught her off-guard.

"Would you consider it true if I say I'm an assassin sent to kill the Fifth Hokage?"

_HE WHAT?_

"What about a secret admirer?"

Her inner self cooed and awwed, and fainted.

She was practically gnashing her teeth and chewing the insides of her cheek, carefully avoiding an opportunity for her to pounce on him and give him a few real good lessons. _How dare he get kicks from messing with me, of all people in the world I've seen him messing with... hold on a sec, he doesn't even have one, Gai doesn't count..._

_No. Nonono. He wanted you to lose your calm, and I won't have that. Shame on you, pulling such a nasty trick on me!_

Though, she conceded half-heartedly that the statement made her swoon a bit - of course, who knew what Kakashi's sexual preference was? A guy that mysterious could sweep anyone off his... er... _her_ feet anytime - nonetheless, that's a negative quality to be pinpointed about her kunoichi-wise abilities. She was not supposed to react to such a small flirtatious act!

...ironic that she didn't remember giving Kakashi a small bending act that put his morality on the line...

Building up courage, ready to restart, Sakura opened her mouth -

_RRRRRRRRRIIIINNGGGGG!_

"Kyaaaah!"

In one ring of an alarm clock, a ruckus had arisen.

Sakura flinched, breathing erratic, and felt sooooo mortified that a mere alarm clock had made her overreact. "Who needs that kind of monstrosity?" she unconsciously whispered, fingers rubbing her abused ears lightly, "It's loud enough to wake a pack of napping elephants."

"You don't, since you're very punctual," Kakashi chuckled, spoke as he stood and tapped the alarm clock lightly, turning off the alarm in an instance. "I had an urge to play with this... machinery... when you were fast asleep."

Eyes narrowing back to slits, Sakura eyed her teacher suspiciously as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head, with a mask and a sloppy headband, too. It was too bad her imagination covered that gap as well, for though she would never admit it, she had times when she imagined how Kakashi's face would be - expressing seriousness, happiness, sadness, all the emotions that were well covered since the day she first met him.

Anyhow, she was proud that she couldn't see the hint of loneliness in that eye anymore.

Back in the present, the silence filled the room once more. The kunoichi's fingers itched, feeling a sudden urge of reaching for her shurikens and throwing them out for a bull's-eye through the crickets outside. They were getting on her nerves, those horrible crick-crick-cricketing machine.

Deciding that it was apt, the pink-headed kunoichi attempted to play along. "Well, then it takes you more than that one alarm clock to be on time! I'll buy you one on your thirty-something birthday - " as she spoke, her eyes caught the numbers displayed on the old-fashioned metal alarm clock, causing her words to be stuck on her throat, be pulled back and replaced by a new line. "Where are the others? Aren't we supposed to practice at this time? We're well an hour and a half late!"

She eyed the clock again.

"And by the way you set the alarm for an hour and a half _late_! No wonder you're never on time." she reprimanded sourly.

"I told them to practice by themselves, so I could tend to your injury as well as ask you questions in private."

She began regretting the position she had quickly loved before, since because of it she couldn't search his eye for a truth or lie. The last part of the statement finally made it into her system.

_...is it the moment of truth already?_

Guilt on the back of her brain sprung back into life. If it wasn't because of her and her attempt of feeding him the potion, Kakashi wouldn't have been somewhat split into two personalities, she wouldn't have to be suddenly examined for nothing, wouldn't have everyone worrying about her - in short, none of this would ever happened.

She glanced around, and finally her senses came to a conclusion.

She was in Kakashi's bedroom.

Just the two of them.

_Holy crap._

"Give me an answer, and I'll give you one. You can keep my words. Now, what exactly were you doing?"

The offer was so tempting she almost came clean and finally solved the mother of all riddles that was Hatake Kakashi. However, if, just if he was just a very talented con designed to test her abilities, bending to such an offer was unacceptable. She just hated losing marks, since to her, scores were the proofs of her skills and were meant to be preserved. Planning on a counter-attack, she replied. "I asked first."

"That you did, Sakura-chan. If you want to change the question, take your time - you have had your answers for that first problem."

He was right. She had asked the same thing on their 'first' encounter yesterday night - she couldn't believe it was only twenty-four hours ago when she had been rejoicing in finally having him drugged and under her control, and found out that she was such a deluded moron. Sakura wasn't prepared to answer why she put that damned potion _(backfired, it did, humph - need a superior to finish, it said!)_ into his tea, for she was beginning to ask herself that. Why? The truth lies somewhere in her mind, she knew it, but was it purely to lower his guards?

Or was it for something else?

Sakura took a deep, calming breath. "Okay, I surrender. Forget that I ever ask that."

"An answer to my question, then."

Eventually she nodded.

"The same thing as before, Sakura-chan - what were you doing back then?"

Her heartbeat didn't agree to tone down, hammering in her small chest in agitation. "About yesterday night... I was..."

"Pardon?"

"I'm trying to _confess_ here, so stop making this any more difficult!" she said in outrage, shot a disturbed look at him. Funny, Kakashi this time was one to look miffed.

"Are we talking about the same matter here?" he inquired, and his utter state of bewilderment put a nagging discomfort on her heart, but it wasn't enough to reign her upcoming rage.

"You tell me! You're the one who's being ambiguous from the start!"

"No offense, Sakura-chan, but I was just wondering, and I wanted to understand the reason why you wandered into the forest this evening."

Like a chunk of butter under hot lamp her tension melted away quickly, and she let mirth took over her, dissolving into laughter. All of it now, in her eyes, looked extremely hilarious - the misunderstanding, her unnecessary anger, her foolishness, and Kakashi's confused face - the latter she found began to shift into one of an amusement, and in no time, they were laughing together, Sakura on the bed curling into a ball on her side and clutching her stomach, while Kakashi on her side, his back touching the bedside, was letting out pleasant laughter that tingled Sakura's skin.

When their mirth finally subsided, happy tears had been wiped away, the pinkhead was reminded of Kakashi's center of attention earlier. She mulled over it before answered quietly, "I didn't have a clue, Kakashi-sensei. I don't think I knew that place, but it felt familiar as I walked into it..."

Kakashi's face slowly went back to serious, yet a bit tinted with concern. "Then drop the subject, we should."

It was so Kakashi-like... yet it was not. Something was missing in his act and words, and her memories of the five years she had gone through with him and the rest of Team Seven members confirmed that. Then again, his way of showing his concern made her hung her guards in her closet and shut it.

Her silver-haired teacher turned and sat cross-legged facing her, leaning forward a little bit, but that was just a bit too close for Sakura's comfort. "Tell me about... _Uchiha Sasuke_?"

Her closet sprung open with a loud bang, the guards she had put away she hastily put back on, and with them carefully covering herself and her secrets, she saw something else in that visible eye that she had not paid attention to - a manic twirl, and that pumped adrenalines into her veins, her limbs ready to be used. Another thing she saw was her hurt face, reflected in Kakashi's only visible red orb. Sakura pushed herself off the bed, slowly coming to a sitting form.

Without a second thought, Sakura stood on Kakashi's bed (a spot under her feet still warm where she had been laying) and jumped slightly to the floor. Bending to fetch her discarded sandals, she chastised herself.

_He was not Kakashi, and I knew it, and I have been so foolish enough to think this was the other him I wanted to see._

It was somewhat an egoistic way of putting things, but then again, she had never been asked that way about her concerns to the certain Uchiha heir, by her teacher no less; who was always there to lend his shoulders for her to cry on, to listen to all of her piling uneasiness and insecurities, and give her a heartening pat.

The silver-haired jounin sat still as the door slammed, followed by heavy stomps retreating to the end of the alley, out to the moonlit night in Konoha that should have been very beautiful - he doubted, or looked doubted, that she would realize that.

Standing up, Kakashi eyed the bed for quite some time, his muscles begging to be stretched over it - in the end, he clambered onto his couch on the other side of the room and dozed off silently.

XXX

On the other hand, Sakura, who didn't let go things as easy as her teacher (or now, highly undoubtedly someone else) seemed to do, stomped home with her heart and mind in turmoil.

She didn't have room left to memorize the road to Kakashi's apartment, or maybe at least remember how it looked like, just like what she had always wanted. She remembered his visible eye, reflecting the four tiny swirls that swiveled around his pupil...

Wait a minute - wasn't his Sharingan, his left eye always hidden behind that sloppy headband? Why was it in his right eye - ?

Pushed by an instant spike of fear, Sakura ran away, hugging her body as the chill of the night stole the warmth away from her small figure. As soon as she found a road she knew, she ran for her house and locked herself in, hiding herself from the vicious eye that reflected itself in Kakashi's eye.

**XXXXX**

**TBC**

**Author's Note:** It seemed that another knot has looped itself into the plot, hmm :) Well well, in the next chapters the puzzle pieces were coming into view ("What's the shack gotta do with Kaka and Saku?", "Why is Kakashi always changing, it's confusing!", _"What the hell is wrong with this story?"_ and all that...). Ah, hehe... not all at a time, though, so stick around ;)

Okay, here's some kind of a **notice**: This story will be written in seasons (or arcs, whatever you call it it's basically the same), and the first season is what you're reading now, I estimate it to end at somewhere around Chapter Seven or Eight, followed by the second season. The first serves as the opening, where the catastrophe began and affected the teacher-pupil relationship, and the latter will be where the progression is really reflected. Hopefully that helps and clear any wonders on where this story is leading, considering the rather straying chapters...

By the way, thanks a whole lot for reading, and even bothering to read the ANs and the notice. The story stats made me grin uncontrollably, thanks to you guys :D Happy browsing and good day!


	4. I: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

**Disclaimer:** This piece is created based on Naruto series, which is created and solely belonged to Kishimoto Masashi - no profit is made from this piece for it is used resolutely for fun. No copyright infringement intended.

**Warning:** PG-13 cusses, twists, -cough- and an... _ahem..._ -cough cough- imaginative dream...

**Author's Note:** My deepest apologies to the readers who have been waiting for this chapter to be posted, and thanks to a new fella, artsaffron, who thankfully kicked me on the shin and reminded me that I had a story to update with those kind words :) This week's just been hectic with all the exams and contest and accidents. Anyway, off to the fourth chapter, and enjoy ;)

**XXXXX**

**CATASTROPHE**

_**By Silbi**_

**Chapter Four**

_"A dream is just a dream, and will always be a dream." -- Anonymous_

XXX

It was morning once again: the bird chirped, the sky was blue, sunshine filtered beautifully through the half-opened shades in a room, somewhere in the middle of Konoha village. The room owner cracked open an eye and closed it again half-heartedly.

_Never thought I'd hate morning so much. I announce this three days ago and I'd laugh my face off._

She pulled the warm bed cover covering her body down to her ankles hopped off the bed. That almost pulled off nicely if her foot didn't get stuck, resulting to her falling face-first to the floor with a satisfying 'thump'.

"Aw, fuck."

Haruno Sakura just knew that this was going to be such a looooooong day.

Outside, however, on the contrary, a blue bird passed by her window and chirped in glee.

XXX

Naruto stole a glance over his shoulder, staring fixedly at something and followed its beeline around the clearing, looking baffled.

Sasuke turned to him and cocked his head aside, not understanding the presented view as well.

They two were exchanging looks more often than they'd ever had, both reporting to each other about the littlest bit of change on a certain pinkhead, who was running in full vigor around the clearing they were practicing at. They had turned to Kakashi, hopefully getting information, but the silver-haired jounin just shrugged it off, saying that it was perhaps 'her time of the month' and that they needed to give her a room for herself.

"But Kakashi-sensei, aren't you worried seeing Sakura-chan pushing herself over the limit like that?"

Kakashi lowered Icha-Icha Paradise to the level of his hidden nose, sighing heavily. The words written all over his masked feature were 'All that I see is the young lady is honing her skills, and all that you, the incredulous brat over here is doing, is worrying over her like a mother hen.' What came out was the simplified version, of course.

"That is one reason why she was overexerting herself. Have you ever thought maybe it was because she wanted to be treated as equal?"

"That's a pretty safe answer that doesn't involve you, does it? Because what we discovered other than her sudden vigor was she was practically avoiding you." Sasuke stated dryly, hands in his pockets while throwing an accusing glance at his teacher.

A soft thump could be heard as Sakura threw her body down to the ground, landed on her knees and palms, and began her push-ups.

The Icha-Icha Paradise slid back into view, up to Kakashi's eye-level, blocking unwanted distractions from every direction. "Twenty laps, starting NOW."

"Kakashi-sensei, all morning Sakura-chan has been doing TWICE of what we're asked to do, if you're not paying attention! She did twenty sets of push-ups and sit-ups when she heard you ordered us to do half of it, she ran ten laps instead of five, and she had - "

The blond ninja looked over to the pinkhead, faintly catching numbers she recited as she moved, _"Thirty-three - thirty-four - thirty-five - "_

"...been working out _manically!_"

"Naruto, that is exactly where I'm getting you to. You have to understand that being a girl, she thought she was weaker than you guys, and that's why she's doing all of the hard work to keep up. You don't have to stress over her. We knew that she knew and has her limits. Now, twenty laps."

Satisfied with Kakashi's explanation, Naruto nodded vigorously and began his running, chasing Sasuke who already had a lap start all the while shouting obscenities. Kakashi shook his head disapprovingly, but he smiled anyways at his students' antics.

He brought his gaze back to a certain kunoichi - in the direction where Naruto had shot an unbelieving look and exchanged the same confused expression with Sasuke who witnessed the sight as well - stretched over dirt on all fours, still trying to do another set of push-up but anyone can see her muscles tremble as she pushed herself up yet again, her dirty limbs wavering a little when her body was perfectly lifted. The pinkhead was far on the side of the clearing, too far for him to call her to a halt.

Her muscles were burning of exertion, her skin was hot under the scalding sun. Carefully lowering herself to the ground, she muttered in-between intakes of breath, "Fifty-_five_..."

_Ugh, not fast enough... And a certain man somewhere out there can do this much faster with me on his back._

"Yo."

_Heh. Don't expect to carry you on my back all the time, the burden is just too much._

Her brows furrowed in concentration as she lifted herself up again, the trembling of her muscles became more intense. She bent her elbows and lowered herself once more, fighting the overwhelming exhaustion that took over her limbs. "Fifty-six..."

"Wanna grab some food after this? My treat." He offered kindly, smiling at her.

It was so typical of him, Inner Sakura noted. That smile, a kind offer for lunch, and he actually didn't ask you to stop training. _Unlike those pestering toddlers..._

She looked from the corner of her eyes, thus all that she got clear were the pair of Kakashi's aging sandals and his dancing left toe, tapping up and down as he waited.

"I've laps... to finish and... some push-ups," Sakura said while sucking an amount of oxygen into her exhausted lungs. They had begun to burn, too, adding itself into a list of her body parts that had showed initiation of needing rest.

"We'll wait."

'We'.

_What, exactly, do you mean by 'we'?_ she wondered, _Does it mean the whole Team Seven or was it actually 'me and my twisted self' you'll be waiting for?_

_I'm supposed to tell him, aren't I?_

Her mind flew back to the aging book in her kitchen, hidden on the top shelf of the cupboard behind sacks of food and brown paper grocery bags, remembering the layout of the book.

Practical Potions...

Potions of Enchantment...

Potions of Enchantment and the Antidotes...

_Potions must have antidotes!_

Sakura felt a spark of optimism rose within her. The burden her limbs were carrying suddenly felt a bit lighter...

_But your potion was deformed... better found what was wrong with it first._

Her hands gave way and she fell with an 'oomph' to the gritty sand, the golden dust staining the front of her knee-length dress and her visible limbs.

The kunoichi replied neither after she finished her push-ups, nor even until she dashed for a two-times-twenty-lap run and leave the silent jounin rooting on his spot - Naruto's hunch was beginning to make sense.

The muscles on her legs were stretched comfortably as she ran, or more like leapt, since she felt so light despite her former condition. With wind caressing her ears, hearing nothing, Sakura was relaxed at once. No more thinking of foolish matters. No more childish banter. No more...

...footfalls?

The wind that had generously caressed her face and hair, now was playing with a certain jounin's messed hair and masked face. The footfalls came from him, who was now running along with her. Wider steps and more controlled pace, she would be outrun any minute, but he kept the pace so as to run side-by-side with the pink-haired young lady.

"What are you doing... Kakashi-sensei?" Controlling her breath didn't need that much energy now, for running was almost daily for her - chasing Naruto, keeping up with Sasuke, and running to get Kakashi - she could say that loud and coherent enough for him to hear.

"As you can see, Sakura-chan, running."

She hated how he could do hundreds of tasks and jutsus with no sweat, just like flicking a dead fly off a table. He sounded rather like he was striding casually along the streets of Konoha wanting to buy some canned peaches and replying to a neighbor's greeting warmly rather than running alongside a student in high velocity.

"Old man, what are you doing?" exclaimed Naruto, who had just ran through the gap Kakashi and Sakura's close proximity created. He sounded jealous, obviously, for he hadn't gotten over her yet. Maybe he had, but he still had that deep affection for his only female teammate that wouldn't wear off. "Get away from her and stick to Ero-sennin's masterpiece - OUCH! What was THAT for?" He rubbed the back of his head, irritated, where Kakashi had bopped him hard enough with his fist.

Sasuke, who didn't miss a second of what was rolling, snorted and increased his speed.

"Oi, wait you sonofa - OW! _STOP IT ALREADY!_" Kakashi had prevented Naruto from uttering the dirty word with another endearing smack.

"Dirty words and no ramen, Naruto."

His tone was final. The vibrant blonde jogged away with a hurt and betrayed face, which didn't last long when he spotted the Uchiha heir already getting two laps further than him.

A giggle escaped Sakura's throat. It was almost like reminiscing, the day they were having that day. Except for the taller Naruto and Sasuke and their ages, almost nothing had changed -

...and she took Kakashi's change into account. Her mood instantly went ugly.

"Carrying the world on your shoulder while you're training is not good, you know."

_So true..._

Hotness rose in her eyelids, and the tears were already threatening to fall. She blinked them away quickly. Until that day, she still couldn't fathom why she always wanted to cry at his way of understanding her. She, too, still couldn't fathom why he couldn't do the opposite.

Sakura slowed down her pace, waiting for Kakashi to do the same thing, and gathered her courage. _I can put down the world for just a minute, can't I?_

"Kakashi-sensei... A moment please?"

The addressed guy silently made a beeline, following her to a shadowed spot under the trees on the side of the clearing. Kakashi looked at her intently, and she mustered all of her might to meet his visible eye, a glinting brown orb under the sun.

She cocked her head aside, _Yesterday, wasn't it - ?_

"Well well well, good day, isn't it, Kakashi, Sakura?" A loud voice of a woman rang clearly across the clearing, every head turning to its direction. Striding confidently to them was the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, smiling brightly.

Her near realization was quickly brushed aside, replaced with bubbling irritation.

_Damn, can't I have a second in private?_

_If I were you, I'd say she had a crush on him and were trying to get you both out from intimate situations,_ the voice in her head - the one that she had learnt to ignore - piped in quickly.

"So, how is everybody?" Tsunade started, casting a glance around the place, watching the unhealthy quarrel between Naruto and Sasuke in pure interest. It was quite a spectacle, Naruto trying to tackle Sasuke from the back, and later when he was clearly unsuccessful with his current method he switched to his Sexy no Jutsu, which in a puff of smoke spread naked blond ladies all over the place. Sakura slapped her forehead as waves of migraine hit her; Kakashi was looking distracted as well, since the orange book was safe somewhere in one of his pockets to keep him off the glorious curves in that hot morning.

"They are all progressing well, Godaime-sama. Even the couple over there has fought less and less, though it is rather unseemly," Kakashi reported in a mission-wise-voice, earning a good laugh from both the ladies.

_Isn't he just a heartthrob?_ A sound in her head complimented between delighted cackles, _And do cut him some slack, he's a pure man after all! No wasting the served meal, even in the form of a porn book or a Jutsu!_

"I see," Tsunade said, hands put together on the small of her back, looking poised and regal. "I am very proud to hear that. And I am proud to inform you, too, that one of them is going to be progressing even more," stated the elder lady, and Kakashi raised and eyebrow, "under my guidance."

The young kunoichi gasped, while Tsunade gave her a small smile.

"Yes, Sakura, you're going to be learning how to be a medic nin, a real medic nin, with me in two months. Enough for you to prepare yourself and make up your mind."

Her eyes fell upon Kakashi, asking for support. The nervous gesture was caught by the Fifth Hokage, and she smiled affectionately.

"However, you can still refuse to receive the lesson if you don't want to - it's your choice to accept or not." Tsunade told her wistfully, giving her a reassuring look.

"There is a thing, however, that you have to complete before you can proceed to be my apprentice."

Naruto and Sasuke, on the other hand, had progressed to a hassle in a messy tangle of limbs - Naruto had his hand curled around Sasuke's neck, strangling him while holding him down by sitting on the brunet; Sasuke was looking like a hard-boiled crab, yet he hadn't let go of the blonde's head squashed stiffly between his ankles.

"Uzumaki Naruto! Uchiha Sasuke! Stop that catfight and GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE!" The medic nin shouted at the top of her lungs (though, by the waver in her voice, it was clear she tried hard not to laugh), startling the pair who hastily stopped pulling each other's tee collars and did as they were told.

Once they were gathered in a circle, ears opened wide, the Fifth Hokage continued her speech. "You are all to be sent for..."

"Gah, it's the buxom Grandma! What do you want?"

Sakura glared daggers at Naruto, who visibly shrank and zipped his mouth shut, and in less than a second their attention was fully back to Tsunade, who still looked pissed by the weird arch on the left corner of her mouth and the pulsating veins on her forehead and balled fists.

"...a Grade-B mission. Finish in two weeks and report to me if, and only if, you bring success. You'll be briefed in the evening, Shikamaru will tell you then what to do."

Sensing something evil in Tsunade's words, Kakashi spoke up, "Does that mean..."

"Yes, you are in, too."

Though a little out of place, across the blue sky that morning, the blue bird flew past once more.

XXX

Sitting comfortably was not a circumstance one could address Haruno Sakura's situation with right now.

She was awfully jittery, chewing her bottom lip in anxiety while Shikamaru laid out the circumstances (a jounin taken hostage in the middle of a mission, and the kidnapper wanted their ninjas back; it turned out that the one she saw some weeks ago in the ANBU headquarters was one of them), the dangers (possibility of not coming back and all that missing-limbs-and-severe-injuries crap), and the plan before them in the meeting room. She propelled her chin on the back of her hands, arms bent on the table, carefully out of the white styrofoam cup's way, which contained a dark liquid that took part in straining her nerves. The coffee tasted awful, as always, and all it did was thickening the haze in her head.

How can they be sent out at such a purrfect situation like this: a team consisted of two rabid boys couldn't wait to tear each other's head off, a guilt-ridden kunoichi, and a split-personality jounin, for a B-grade mission that was to be finished in two weeks? They needed much more than just a plan if they expected something a little better than 'Pass'.

Plans.

_REAL plans,_ Inner Sakura popped in evilly, and Sakura's brows knotted. _How so very ironic._

"...so when you are done cleansweeping the outskirts of the area, you are positively in a safe state."

_...what did he just say?_

_Okay. Listen again carefully, maybe you only have missed a paragraph or so. Not a whole project..._

Now it was all coming to her ears as clear as a bell in a silent night (cut out the Hail Maries and choirs and you got the picture). "However, checking for other signs of hidden guards might be useful. If you have the place cleared, you can proceed with the steps as outlined before. If there's no question, I think that wraps up for today." The mastermind, Shikamaru, finished with swelling pride and smiled politely as some of the audience gave him an appreciative applause. One guy actually came up to him and pat him on the back, telling him how perfect his strategy was, and looking forward to be sent on a mission together with him, which Shikamaru replied with a rather forced smile.

"Oh crap." She realized everyone had started shuffling their papers and notes, Shikamaru collecting his maps and stacks of information he had spread during the one-hour briefing, and that she had missed the whole three-quarters of it.

She felt a poke on her rib, and turned to answer the call.

"Hm?" Naruto stared back at her with a stupid grin in his face - weird enough, Sasuke behind him looked like he was trying really hard to normalize his face-splitting grin - they two looked like a pair of schoolgirls confronting an idol. Sasuke must've taken that look from one of his fans, because it had looked very real, despite the muscles in his face hadn't been used for hard tasks. The strains they had taken must have only formed a scowl, a smirk, or a deranged face.

"Real masculine, hm? Betcha were... hmf... rooting for him, but unfortunately... haha... he's taken." Naruto finished with much difficulty, started guffawing along with Sasuke's stifled laugh as soon as the last world went out safely from his mouth.

"What are you talking about?"

_Grr, if only everyone would stop looking so smug..._ Genma on the corner, drinking a cup of coffee with Kakashi, was seen stealing glances on her, and hiding his smile in the styrofoam cup.

"What is wrong with you guys?" she said incredulously, and added critically at an innocent-looking Shikamaru who was finally done stacking the material and wanting to get out of the room, "And Shikamaru, do I see you running away from this scene? Defend me or something, will you! I swear I'll tell Ino about - "

Genma put down his white cup on the table coolly. "Sakura, everyone in this room has witnessed that all, and I mean all, this evening you were looking dreamily at the genius mastermind Shikamaru. Right, Shikamaru?"

"No I DIDN'T!"

"Did too," Genma shot back almost childishly, and patted Kakashi on the shoulder as he briskly made his way out. "Keep her off coffee. I see that made her a little too sensitive," he advised seriously. Naruto dissolved into laughter, almost fell onto the floor laughing madly.

Kakashi somehow kept himself out of the upcoming war, nursing his cup of coffee almost too lovingly while Sakura was shooting murderous glances all around.

"Har har," the irked kunoichi muttered, marching out of the meeting room with unwavering anger, her heavy stomps resonated in the hallway.

"Sakura-chan!"

Quickening her walking pace, she ignored the boyish voice calling at her from the other end of the alley. He didn't sod off and caught up with her instead, breath coming out in short pants.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan... Didn't mean to piss you off like that..." he said apologetically, head bowed down in shame as he scratched the back of his head, looking like a kicked puppy.

"Didn't sound like you didn't," uttered Sakura, who bit her lips, pressed her eyes shut and quickly looked away, ashamed that she had tried to bite off someone who gave an apology trial a try. Naruto looked forlorn, yet he forced a nervous laugh at her sharp tongue.

"Ne, I'm really really sorry, Sakura-chan... I'll buy you ramen, if that helps - I always find it comforting when I have a bad day!" added Naruto quickly, suddenly bursting with newfound energy even only at the mention of that favorite dish of his.

Naruto, in Sakura's humble opinion, was just an unchangeable factor. He might lost his whining pattern, yet he still adored that bowl of ramen of Ichiraku dearly - he always stopped by the small restaurant and ordered the same thing every now and then after his practice, and he didn't quit asking people to treat him there everytime he got the chance. What Sakura thought was very sweet was the blonde ninja with the hidden Kyuubi inside him had never been heard asking Hinata to treat him - Sakura had only heard that he'd done the other way round, which was very occasional, with the shy kunoichi giving 'yes' as a reply.

"_Any_thing I like?"

He nodded vigorously, as if unwanting to miss the chance of apologizing.

The pink-haired kunoichi smiled, the first real smile she had ever given since the sullen morning she'd woken up with a hangover and a deviated teacher in her house, and she could see all the worries in Naruto's eyes and face evaporated.

"You always look pretty when you smile, Sakura-chan," Naruto said softly, sounding relieved. "Good to have you back."

The raven-haired Uchiha strode past them quietly and said, "You don't want to keep the customers waiting, do you?"

"Hey, I'm not treating YOU!"

"Seriously, Dobe."

XXX

Team Seven minus Kakashi went out of Ichiraku Ramen feeling full to the throat, Naruto rubbing his stomach appreciatively, Sasuke cleaning his teeth with a chewed toothpick and Sakura dragging her feet, huffing, "Gosh, I just can't walk. I'm too full to breathe," she poked her slightly bulging belly with a finger.

"I'll escort you home then, if you want!" Naruto ventured.

"You're forgetting something, or someone, if I may say so," claimed Sasuke in-between chewing his toothpick and kicking stones or pebbles on the road, watching them spread dust and rolled somewhere off the road.

"She has nothing to do with this!" the blonde bemoaned, "What's your problem, fool?"

"Chill, you guys," the only girl in the group parted them before there was bloodshed, "we've just eaten here, let us digest the food before you two do anything stupid. And don't complain if you get a stomachache." She implored, and let out a laugh when both of her companies looked baffled at her insensitive statement. Poking Naruto on the side, she teased, "Come on, you know I'm just kidding right?"

"At least you don't drag Hinata in this whole conversation, unlike an asshole next to you..."

"Did I say something about that Hyuuga girl?"

Naruto, pink cheeks and all, seethed at Sasuke who grinned smugly, feeling he'd just won the conversation.

"Quit it, will you, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun?"

They stopped at a junction of roads, and Sakura looked at every face before her affectionately. "Thanks for today. See you guys later." She said, meaning every word, and waved. They parted, going to their own ways silently under the obscured sun.

XXX

Tightly wrapped in a thick, fluffy white towel, heat emanating from her body after a long soak in the strawberry-scented bubble bath, Haruno Sakura flopped on the bed and sighed in bliss. "This whole thing is just divine," she told herself, a hand went up and traced the framed photo of Team Seven on the bedside table lovingly, "you guys must be proud I am finally promoted for something that I deserve."

Thinking about the tutelage that was going to be given to her in two months by none other than the legendary medic-nin herself, Tsunade, twisted her guts in knots; but the pride leaping in her heart had defeated the unpleasant churning.

_'...you're going to be learning how to be a medic nin with me in two months. Enough for you to prepare yourself and make up your mind.'_ Godaime's words resonated back in her brain, reminding her that she needed to fix whatever unfinished businesses she got enlisted in her to-do list. She had ticked most of the first on the ever-growing list, one was 'loosen up, doll!', and another was 'stop having people worrying about you', which was right under 'getting your way with dear sensei', the one that got a long, red line crossing it in the middle defining a crash.

To top it off, the aforementioned 'dear sensei' would be with her along the mission, and they were expected to work as a perfect team that they were. Or that they had been, she didn't know - how was she to explain to Tsunade if in the middle of a heating battle Kakashi suddenly lost his usual side and ended up flirting with the opponent?

_I couldn't survive this for long..._

_...have to... tell..._

_...someone trustworthy..._

Seconds later, Sakura, clad only in a thick, fluffy towel had fallen into peaceful slumber on her soft bed, the ends of her mouth curled into a contented smile.

XXX

_FLASH._

He was hiding in the darkness, lurking behind the shadows that were his friends, eyes following the movements of a beauty lounging in the backyard garden. The center of his attention looked about, a slight tone of indignation flawing her vixen-like features as she kept on glancing behind her at every rustle of leaves or every whisper of the wind. It was pitch black, only the reddish light from the small house she came out from helping making out the gorgeous outline of a lady, convincing everyone that the face was absolutely stunning.

In a slow, calculated steps, he approached the lady from behind, grasping the hilt of his katana.

_This isn't a dream,_ Kakashi told himself. _It is too real._

_Then what is it?_ A voice wondered aloud afterwards, voicing his own question mentally.

XXX

_FLASH._

She was feeling agitated. Nervously stepping out of her chamber, tip-toeing to the terrace, she settled down and slipped into her wooden sandals. Bringing herself up, she smoothed her wrinkled kimono.

_Kimono?_ Sakura inquired, _Am I actually wearing this to sleep?_

She walked to the middle of the garden, to the dark fish pond surrounded by grey pebbles. As the clouds parted it glinted beautifully under the moon, the silvery reflection was simply breath-taking to her. Tempted to see her reflection in it, she walked silently to its edge, bent forward and held her breath - it wasn't because she was dressed in an ancient Japanese style and her face was absolutely gorgeous, the rosy pink lips were full and her eyelashes were long and black, but it was because there was another reflection looking back at her with a spine-chilling gaze.

XXX

_FLASH._

He was right behind the kimono-clad lady, the woman oblivious of his presence. The katana in his right hand was raised high, ready to strike... he still couldn't make out her looks, much less from her backside in the poor lighting... she could be seen approaching the pond, though...

Kakashi became anxious. _What am I doing? Am I going to kill her - is this a mission? When is this happening?_

The clouds parted, and rays of silvery light brought everything into his hungry eyes. Pink locks glared back at him, pulled into intricate bun at the back of her head and adorned with various hairpins embedded with jade stones - the owner whirled back with a soft gasp, the soft hair brushed his face and it almost felt real, and he was staring right into two endless emerald orbs that he knew too well.

XXX

_FLASH._

She was startled.

_That face -_

The other feeling she was experiencing at the sight of him was stronger than her fear; and soon, she was pulling him to her close.

XXX

_FLASH._

The orbs ascended, no, he descended to greet the eyes, and their lips crashed together in a frenzied kiss, their hands scrambling and feeling sensuously, hotness spread on her lips almost painfully -

Hatake Kakashi shot up from his bed, sweating all over and breath laboring, the blanket had been kicked away moments ago and now laying innocently on the floor.

Blocks away, Sakura gasped and shot up from her messed-up bed, glorifying red coloring her sweaty cheeks as she was awoken from the same dream.

The two calmed themselves, trying to tone down their erratic breathes, a thought ringing in two different minds.

_What was that?_

Minutes later, after staring into the blankness of his bedroom wall, Kakashi laid back heavily onto his damp mattress, and tried to give himself a second restless sleep.

Sakura tried hard to brush the dream aside, and when she thought she had gotten rid of the burning from her cheeks and lips aside, she buried her face onto the pillow and cursed.

_Now I can't see him in the eye anymore, and I just can't tell him why._

**XXXXX**

**TBC**

**Author's Note:** By the way, why do people tend to forget to tell me how they think? -wonders questioningly- Hehe, but thanks for sparing some time to read this crappy story, it was worth it and I appreciate it very much. Thank you for reading and have a nice weekend! Valentine's coming up, expect some lovey-dovey stuff so stick around :D


	5. I: Resolve

**Disclaimer: **This piece is created based on Naruto series, which is created and solely belonged to Kishimoto Masashi - no profit is made from this piece for it is used resolutely for fun. No copyright infringement intended.

**Warning:** Mild violence and language and no Orochimaru.

**Author's Note:** Will be long, at the end of the chapter. Now, enjoy :)

**XXXXX**

**CATASTROPHE**

_**By Silbi**_

**Chapter Five**

_Step._

"Ugh... Damn..."

_Step._

A sound of cloth being dragged against the rocky ground greeted the morning cheerfully. _Shhhrrrt._

"Move, you sack of miserable-useless-thingamabobs - " _Grunt._

Haruno Sakura, dragging her overstuffed backpack while trying hard to shoulder another one, looked at her companions from beneath heavy eyelids that threatened to close, and a sheepish but annoyed grin crept to her pallid, sweaty face. "Hi." She said shortly. Then she went back to heaving her stuff, her bag on the verge of overflowing as it stretched on every seams accommodating whatever was inside her big and black baggage, various house supplies tied across and over it. The others sweatdropped, attempting to conjure a mental image of Sakura dragging that enormous burden from three blocks away, which was her house - then another grunt came and brought them back to reality.

Naruto was the one who first tried being helpful, considering all of the things in his apartment (that included his mountain-high stash of ramen) magically fit in a duffel bag, which he was carrying loosely in a hand. "Need help carrying all those... eh... stuffs, Sakura?"

"No thank you, Naruto, I'm cool." She shrugged her backpacks as if trying to assure him that she wouldn't fall any second when she actually would, her back felt like it was carrying a ton of bricks - and her contorted face, adorned with an attempted smile, was enough to send alarms to her companions not to play nice and decent with her and butt off instead.

_Do thank your teacher, Naruto, for he was the reason I'm bringing all this junk._

She started to reread her mental list consisted of all the pleasantries that she could have shared (and usually preferred to) with her teammates in general missions, meaning a lighter baggage either of them would be carrying - but she didn't, pleasing herself with all those personal things in unnecessary fear of having to share with the teacher.

_That's paranoia, you know - or is it more like phobia? What are you afraid of actually? _

_Nothing, I tell you_, said Sakura mentally and menacingly, veins on her forehead throbbing and causing her great pain.

_An indirect kiss won't kill, you know, and that's a step closer to your imagination._

After that thought passed, a girlish, annoying giggle followed. She rolled her eyes.

"So, when will we depart?" she asked casually, ignoring the mental banter, eyeing the sun that started to crawl higher and higher to zenith.

"We're waiting for Kakashi-sensei, in case you forget that he's in." said Sasuke, projecting utter boredom like he always did, now resorting to draw circles and spirals on the sand with a twig.

Oh, yeah, HIM.

"Yo."

Speak of the Devil. Thou shalt not forget one that sayeth 'Yo'.

She blushed again at the thought of him in her dream last night, those unseen lips had been pressed tantalizingly on hers, leaving hot mark that burnt even after she splashed cold water to her face and washed her mouth.

_Gah. Even in a dream I couldn't remember how his lips had looked like... though certainly they weren't of the fish kind. With those he could mesmerize a ramen-selling grandpa and a waitress in a flash._

The conclusion was... she was a hundred meters behind her chattering teammates, already at a distance. _Damn._

XXX

On the way to the city they're heading to, thankfully, Kakashi re-briefed them all once more (maybe considering Naruto's tendency to experience a short-term memory loss while going through mission details, not because he had caught her 'fawning over Shikamaru', just like how everyone put it), which she fully paid attention to. A consoling thought of what might have happened during the completion of their mission didn't make her budge - she just needed this one mission to be completed to prove that no matter how many lack-ofs that she suffered, she could still finish a goddamned objection with her friends as her allies, not her props.

That last one, was just the least thing that she wanted. Kunoichi needing props at the age of seventeen? I mean, who was she kidding? Herself?

She jogged lightly along with her two old teammates, relishing the time they were finally sent for a mission together again, and grudgingly thanking Kakashi for asking her to bring only her 'basic needs' - she lost one and a half of her backpack, and now only carrying a smaller version of her black bag. Naruto had been struck with ultimate horror the moment the teacher said that they had to throw away unnecessities, but once he assured him that no surviving needs including ramen will need to be, the trudging quickly shot up to delighted hops that remained so until lunch-time, when the blonde's plea to stop for a meal was brushed away by Kakashi.

"We'll stop later, when the sun is going down," he said, and added, "After that our walk will be more adventurous."

Naruto didn't seem to catch the meaning of the latter information, but he remained silent throughout the last quarter of their journey. The seemingly endless walk was worth it, because soon as the sun went down a notch to the west, they finally stopped on a small clearing and dropped their bags at Kakashi's instructions to take the awaited rest. They began making a small fire, collecting woods and sat down in a wide circle before setting the minute fireplace in the middle; five minutes later bowls of steaming ramen out of Naruto's emergency stash had been cooked and appreciated in no time.

The silver-haired jounin was one to finish, and speak, first. (The first one, as you all know, was a challenging act to finish his ramen without showing as much as the lower half of his face.)

"Since you have just had a dinner and a rest, it's best for me to tell you this remote change of plan."

All eyes flew up to meet his, Naruto stopped slurping the last drops of his ramen, Sasuke and Sakura staring at him questioningly.

"We are going to split into two teams: the first will be Naruto and Sasuke, the second will be me and Sakura."

Gravely silence which ensued the shocking news was broken by the blonde's late response - he got too much ramen in hand to digest the information quickly enough. "Whaaaat? _Me_," he pointed to his chest, "and this jerk?" he then jabbed his finger to Sasuke's direction, "We'll never make it until tomorrow alive and breathing! I demand a change of plan!"

"Ch." Sasuke snickered, before he resumed drinking from his bottle of water.

Sakura watched the minimum exchange of words disinterestedly, couldn't quite comprehend how the two eighteen-year-olds passed as qualified chuunins despite their young age without accepting that their shining career life had to be compromised with their childish behavior.

The kunoichi turned to the only mature-looking ninja of the bunch, who was none other than Kakashi. "Why this sudden change - ?"

_"Listen."_ Kakashi pressed, staring hard at them - the two immatures stopped picking at each other at once - showing that he really had a point to be cleared. He sounded rather impatient, glancing every now and then at the setting sun behind them, the red sky deepening into maroon, the far end had already gone black. "This split is meant to affect the mission in a positive way. Let's just say that there's a group of nins following us close behind, and if by chance we collide, we can beat them easily but not effectively."

"Why going in a team of four is not effective?"

"Given the time limit we should finish our objective in, when we all face the same opponents, we will all be halted - thus we waste the time our opponent can use to prepare a counter-attack, or worse, kill the abducted ninja, which meant a mission failure and a great loss for Konoha. If a couple is put to a halt, another can still continue their journey to the next stop and collect information in advance as they wait for the other pair, and fill each other in when reuniting. We must arrive at our next stop by tomorrow evening, and when we meet there, I'll then explain our next tasks."

Sakura couldn't help wondering aloud, "But why the odd pairs?"

The jounin eyed her with an unreadable expression, and she suddenly had an excuse of examining the last end of ramen hanging limply from Naruto's chin. Naruto, of course, didn't notice the extra weight on his face, until Sasuke guffawed and spluttered, having noticed the dangling noodle while he was drinking and choked in an act of laughing. Before long, both were laughing at each other, the humor staying short when they felt icy daggers stabbed their sides - Kakashi was watching them patiently, and when they stopped, he picked up from where he'd ended as if they hadn't just ignored him and made fools out of themselves.

"They are, in my humble opinion, the most profitable pairs if we happen to go different ways. Naruto and Sasuke, as we all know, happen to be a rivaling pair, each equals another - " Naruto gagged without sound, sticking out his tongue and retching at the comment, made the teacher eye him suspiciously, "you both can take your rivalry to a better stage this way. And," Kakashi's gaze went back to the fidgety Sakura, "Sakura has to pair with me since it will justify our powers. That will help on the way to our target, too." He explained.

Between the understanding nod from Sasuke and noises as Naruto busied himself back with his ramen leftovers, the pink-haired kunoichi said nothing in objection to that, though the voice within her proved otherwise.

_He seems to try getting opportunities to get you alone_, Inner Sakura warned her, _you might want to have a rain check before mission. Prepare for the inevitable, okay?_

...the more frequent such point of view be repeated in her mind the lamer it become. Yes, that might be an answer, but the explanation given by her teacher assured her that there was nothing more in that pair besides a purely business-wise intention. The fact that she had wanted that something more in the team split wasn't unheard of from both her and her sub-consciousness, but was enough to keep her oblivious to the converging paths they're going to take as newly-made pairs.

"That is reasonable," said Sasuke, standing up and helping himself with his bag. "We're off."

The brunet made his way coolly to the left path Sakura suddenly realized was there, since it was starting to get darker and darker and hard to see, with Naruto tailing behind him, running and holding the bowl of ramen, looking overall messy for departing at such a short notice. The noises of their arguments slowly decreased, and soon it was tranquility again with her and her new partner. Owls hooted in the distance, and crickets picked up the cue to start their melodious orchestra, but despite all that supposedly calming natural sounds, Sakura was still feeling edgy.

_Just my luck. Left with the partner I wanted the least in the dark of the night. I'd scream if it wasn't all._

"Put the fire out," her partner calmly asked.

True to her words, her inner self squealed (if not screamed). _Ha, gotcha now!_

She looked at the darkness around them, outside the circle of light the small campfire produced, at the shadows swaying behind their figures, and back at Kakashi incredulously. The look in her face was thoroughly spooked. _Now?_

_Yes, now, before he does the job himself and kisses the living daylights out of you..._

She risked her (reddening) neck and waited.

When her teacher amplified his request by answering nothing, she reluctantly did as she was told; as soon as the girl had scooped an amount of damp sand and spread them hastily over the minute fire, it flickered, and darkness enveloped them at once right after the last spark of flame was covered with earth.

Goosebumps rose to her arms and thighs as the chill attacked her the moment the darkness fell; and worse, she almost couldn't see anything. They were too deep in the forest to get even a single ray of moonlight to light their way, and she dared not make a sound in the already unnerving darkness. Her fingers crept to her bag and wrapped around the shoulder strap, her sweaty palms made the strip of cloth felt itchy in her death-grip.

Sakura gasped inaudibly when a hand found her fingers and pulled her deeper in the suffocating blackness - _he's strong, don't, don't fight back_, her mind pleaded - she regained her courage and pulled back harder to refrain from being taken away.

"It's me." The assailant whispered next to her ear, and she released the increasing amount of carbon monoxide she's been holding in terror just in time when it had become painful.

"Kakashi-sensei, you scared me - "

"A ninja, even a kunoichi, should be prepared in any kinds of fields and situations. Since you are new to this surrounding, I'm helping you to walk in the dark." The grip of his hand around hers tightened a bit, as if pressing the importance of that matter to her, and helped her to stand.

_Pompous bastard..._

She felt anger lanced through her heart, and she jerked her right hand off of his at once to Kakashi's mild surprise

As soon as she found her voice, she said, "_Never_," said the kunoichi, the strength in her voice contrasting with the waver that laced the words, "consider me as a liability."

Before Kakashi could answer, she shouldered her bag and ran to where she felt was right, through the obscuring branches ahead of her, walking over tree roots protruding from the ground blindly, mentally going over the same obstacles in the journey of her straying mind.

XXX

Naruto trotted far in the front over snapped twigs and grasses, all the while grumbling menacingly without losing his pace. "Heh... teamwork _my ass_... see if he can bear a journey alongside this lame excuse of a genius chuunin, doesn't matter if he's dumb as a log..."

He then stared blankly forward, his partner pausing as well to see what was coming next.

"Log _is _dumb... but back to the topic, can he bear walking next to a man this tacit? My piggybank makes more sound than he does." Naruto shook the bag slung over his shoulder, and when he heard the familiar rattle of gold coins, muffled behind his stuffs, he grinned contentedly. He remembered when Jiraiya brought him to the city where he'd made the most of it at, the moment before he was introduced to the soon-to-be Fifth Hokage, Tsunade. The blonde also remembered vaguely the hurt expression that crossed her face when he had looked at her right into her eyes, yet he hadn't known yet what had pained her so. Ah, something ironic about her and him, he had all the luck in the world in gambling - the exuberant ninja even considered 'gambler' to be his side job, after being a Sixth Hokage-to-be - while Tsunade had just the worst, piling bills and debts wherever she played.

That was what made him deliberately bear with the supposedly dumb-but-genius Uchiha heir. One, this was what would happen if he ever wanted to be a pro, be paired to someone he didn't like; and two, Naruto wanted to see happiness whenever he saw the buxom baa-chan again. He had played cheeky with her just to leave a space for another emotion to cross those actually kind eyes, but now he wanted to do something other than being irksome. He would bear with the dumb log, and that was a start, wasn't it?

"Ow!"

Naruto brushed away a twig that scratched his cheek, harshly awaken from his musings.

The said 'dumb' man was following the path behind, keeping an eye and his ears open for any possible assault in the darkness they're going through. An advantageous position he was in, he could maintain his guard high, plus he wouldn't have to slash wildly and looking all stupid while clearing the way from low branches and thick cobwebs just as his companion had. Before he could say anything smart at the blonde, glinting shurikens shot from three feet above their heads diagonally, barely sliced apart Naruto's head if it hadn't been him leaping forward and toppling them together to the forest ground, and found its landing mark at a nearby tree with three identical thunks.

"Get off me, you perv! What do you want attacking me in the darkness like this?" Naruto, oblivious that he had just been saved, jabbed his forefinger on the Uchiha heir's chest alarmingly.

He didn't even hear those razor-sharp shurikens slicing open thick wood? What's with his ears, two grenades had exploded next to them and turned him deaf?

"Saving you, dobe. _You_ get off me." Sasuke said matter-of-factly, it was him after all who cushioned Naruto, and he hated it when someone was being ungrateful and that particular person was sitting atop him - the position, however, didn't last long when a powerful swipe of feet swung from Naruto's left, who quickly ducked and rolled to his side. As he dodged, however, he caught a glimpse of a man in dark clothes leaping to the high branches as soon as his attack missed.

"Bastard! Show yourself!" Naruto stood up and shouted to the trees with rage, hands already slipping into his pockets to fetch his weapons; Sasuke following suit next to him, eyes registering every movement made around them, blood pounding in his eardrums muffling the sound of rustling leaves.

_Crack._

"Gotcha!" The blonde ninja shouted victoriously, releasing a handful of shurikens to the direction of the broken twig to Sasuke's horror.

"It's a distraction, you fool! Duck!" Sasuke pushed down Naruto's head, another weapon slicing through the air just over his hand. _"There!"_ He muttered, the razor-sharp blades flew from his hands at lightning speed followed by a deep grunt, indicating that one of his weapons got their opponent - it didn't matter to him if the injury was fatal or not, the thing was he got him and that made his blood sang in anticipation. Sounds of people leaping off of the trees came afterwards, dried leaves fell prematurely to their heads, tree branches creaking above in the dark.

It was still. Both ninjas held their breaths, waiting for a follow-up while keeping their fighting stances. Five minutes passed before they could breathe deep.

Naruto fell to his back and huffed, "Whew, that was close... Good thing they left, I barely can see a thing at such night... too bad I didn't mistake your head for theirs." said the blonde grudgingly.

Pocketing back his weapons, Sasuke suppressed the anger that coursed through his veins, considering that their attackers had escaped - even the fact that he had injured one of them and made him easier to track didn't enlighten his frustration.

"But remembering that Sakura would kill me if I did, forget it," Naruto added, and bowed to get his discarded bag. "Kakashi-sensei was right about the team split. Let's go, then."

Sakura?

"Fuck." Sasuke cursed under his breath, quickly grabbing his bag and started running.

"What, what is it? Stop understanding this whole situation alone!"

Sasuke turned to Naruto, and never had the blonde ninja seen Sasuke so terrified.

"They might be now catching up with Sakura and Kakashi-sensei. We might as well precede them in the least."

As if on cue, they took off with renewed stamina and started running deeper into the woods.

XXX

"I never thought that she'd even considered such a proposal to be given to me, of all people, of all kunoichi in Konoha..."

Hand in hand with Kakashi in the forest at night had reduced Sakura to talking to herself, probably loosing the tenseness that was building up. Worse, she was blabbering all that had made entrance into her mind, about the scholar given by Tsunade, night sounds that were practically killing her, wondering if Sasuke was gay, for the act of rejecting the whole girls in full bloom in Konoha didn't make sense to her at all - all the while complaining mentally why did her knickers hurt so bad and why the night was getting warmer. Her monologue proved to succeed in shutting up her other way of thinking in the form of Inner Sakura, and a night without her was a new experience to the pink-haired ninja.

"It's Tsunade we're talking about, right? The legendary medic-nin..." said the kunoichi absently, swung her legs forward a bit slower.

She was in the right mind, though, that she didn't consider mentioning the potion - what had been causing the whole chain reaction leading to her skulking in the dark in a mission like this. The pink liquid and the grotesque after-effect had left her mind for a while in the company of her teacher who was holding her hand tightly, and it was making her hand start to sweat uncontrollably.

"Kakashi-sensei..." she started.

"Shh."

Immediately did as she was told, she quickly shifted to her fighting stance, preparing and gathering her chakras, ready to be used at will.

"Lose it."

"Huh?"

"The chakras. They're attracting unwanted attention."

Feeling the chakras slipping back to their former places in her body, her body sagged as she relaxed, though moments later she would have regretted it deeply.

_SLASH!_

Wind blew past Sakura's neck and made her blood run cold - a kunai, a very sharp one at that, had barely missed her neck and Kakashi's that was right next to her - _had been_ next to her. He was gone already, brought an opponent's face upon his knees and broke his nose, from the sound that was brought to her, and she scanned her surrounding to prepare an attack to aide her teacher.

The layers of high branches and leaves parted as the wind blew forcefully - the moonlight streamed down beautifully and lit their current position - and she gasped when she saw they were surrounded by five nins, one down and clutching his covered but obviously bleeding nose, the one that Kakashi had beaten previously. Their faces, just like Kakashi, were hidden behind black masks; all were holding weapons and were in a fighting stance, circling them like starving eagles eyeing a group of fat, terrified rabbits.

She and Kakashi were the pitiful bunnies, facing death.

Kakashi dropped his bag leisurely, reached up and shifted his headband, revealing the scarred eye, the Sharingan, that was hidden most of his life ever since the tragedy that earned him the eye.

Sakura turned and was shocked - he never did that unless it was necessary, but he seemed unwanting to waste his effort and eager to carry on... she began studying Kakashi's figure, from his lean body and up to his face, uncaring that it was rude, never getting enough of that mystifying red orb - one that matched the pair of Sasuke's, which she saw staring coldly at her almost everyday. The dots swirling in that deep red were hypnotizing her, they were creating circles now, her head started to feel heavy...

"What were you thinking?"

Brought back to her senses, she quickly reached her weapons to help him fight, the reason that he showed his Sharingan in the first place.

"Close your eyes and don't do anything unless I say so."

"But - "

"Just do it!"

She shoved her shurikens back into her holster and seeing red behind her eyelids, feeling angrier than ever, but then Kakashi was in the position of the decision maker while there were only two of them. He was her senior, her superior. He risked things but he knew what he was risking, and truth be told Sakura believed in any option that her teacher chose on the field. However, the options were not all pleasant.

_You're gonna accept that? Being ordered around like a nanny-goat?_

Her ego pushed her eyelids over her eyes and the battlefield graced her eyes once more - she found herself staring right into blood-colored eye, the dots circling so fastly her eyes couldn't follow the movement, faster and faster they went until her eyes saw only red and black - and right after, she realized that her hands were bound over her and everything was pitch black.

A long, sharp sting graced her unguarded back, the crack echoed and dissolved into the air.

At the lash on her back she screamed, but the blew came one after another, whipping mercilessly across her back while she screamed and _screamed_; she felt sticky warmth seeped through the back of her dress... she assumed that it was blood... red, as the blood red orbs...

Kakashi looked about at the mentally wounded ninjas that were slowly sinking to their knees, but when his eyes arrived at the end of the circle, he found a fazed Sakura, face contorting as if in pain, her eyes were blank, mesmerized.

"Sakura!"

Knees unwilling to support her form anymore, she collapsed to the dirt along with the other ninjas that were squirming and moaning on the ground in excruciating yet imaginary pain like maggots, all victims of a Sharingan's illusion.

XXX

"I wonder how Sakura is doing right now."

Sasuke smirked coolly. "That is so nice of you, but how about thinking _how to get us out of this God-forsaken hole we're in right now? Does that sound like a good idea?"_

"Sheesh, relax," Naruto cringed visibly and sunk back to a crouch, looking up desperately at a circular light far above them, the rim of a wide hole they fell into some minutes ago as they were tracking their other teammates earlier right after the attack.

"Maybe we're in some kind of an old well," the blonde suggested absently.

"Why, isn't that just brilliant," Sasuke grumbled. "Mind telling me why we're in this some kind of old well in the first place?"

"Stop acting like this is my fault you dumbass!"

"And that, for God's sake, is!"

"Dear Lord," Naruto said and brought up his hands with shiny, dreamy eyes and in a tone that made Sasuke get shivers up his spine (in pure horror and disgust), "why did I agree to go with this sonofabitch I'd never want to team with even after the next hundred of years?"

Not so long after, the raven-haired boy flopped down next to the blonde, shoulders inches apart, sitting with knees bent supporting their stretched hands. Naruto's eyes widened as big as saucers and almost scooted over, but when the Uchiha heir didn't act or look like he was going to manage a mischief on him, the blonde let him be and joined him in silence.

They gazed upwards at the star-laden sky, pausing and actually forgetting for a moment the bicker they'd been having to sit back and bask in the moonlight, letting the God-crafted view sink into their knotted and tangled minds. To Naruto, Sasuke was actually a good company, but only when he's silent and not picking on him like he always believed the Uchiha heir did. To Sasuke, Naruto was actually a good company as well, but only when he wasn't rambling about the importance of ramen in everyday life or starting a fight with those childish but rude exclamations.

"It's beautiful, don'tcha think?" Naruto whispered dreamily, then chuckled, "Though we're not in the perfect place on the perfect time to enjoy it... but it's still beautiful."

"Mm-hmm."

"Do you think people out there are enjoying this too?"

"Hn."

"...and of all people, I still wouldn't ever choose you deliberately to be my teammate."

"Why do you have to be so goddamned tight-lipped? In this last ten minutes you didn't even go as far as whistling!"

The raised eyebrow and the humored face didn't send a message clear enough for Naruto to comprehend, so Uchiha Sasuke helped himself by declaring what he was up to.

"I'm collecting my chakra to bounce us out of here, dobe, so if you don't mind - "

The blonde eyed the spot between Sasuke's legs and his gaze climbed slowly upwards like a scanner, before he smirked appreciatively. Hadn't they been in the field right then doing a mission, the ministration would have looked suggestive to ones that paid attention and would have attracted mixed-up reactions from the fangirls' watchful eyes.

"Come to think of it, oh-the-genius-one, you have been sitting on the end of a tree root which might be available for us to climb on, so if you don't mind?" The blonde gestured the other one to step aside with a satisfied smirk, feeling that that time he had won the argument.

"I don't mind, really, but..." the amused ninja scooted over, "...is there actually a thing to climb on to?"

The tree root, it seemed, didn't grow outside the high wall but inside; and what Naruto suspected to be something that could work as a ladder proved to be only a small end of tree root protruding from the wall behind Sasuke.

"Feh. Asshole." He stomped away from the dark-haired Uchiha and leaned on the wall opposite him. "I really want to know how Sakura and Kakashi-sensei are doing."

Sasuke sighed, silently saying 'That crap again?' "Sakura's in good hands, if that's your concern," he added before concentrating back to his chakra-gathering.

"That's what concerns me the most! His hands are too good, I swear if he dares to lay a smutty finger on her - "

"What, you'll kick his ass? He'll finish you before you say anything memorable, that's for sure. Not that you've ever said anything memorable." Sasuke snickered.

"Hope she's fine..." Naruto, not listening to his partner anymore, said to himself, and looked back up to the comforting dark sky.

_Somewhere, not far away, but not so close -_

_Wake up, Hime..._

The calling bounced in her skull. There were crusted lines on her cheeks from tears and sweat, but she couldn't yet make a move to remove them with her fingers. Sakura couldn't feel them.

Who is it?

Slowly opening her eyes, she saw, once again, Kakashi - she was reminded of her former dream at once, from the way he looked at her intently, his visible eye undressing her - it was clearer than the dream, though, enough for her to take in her surrounding; the weight of her body supported by a wide, thick strip of futon for her to sleep, the darkened room that was ten times her apartment, the swaying of moonlit shadows on the elaborately decorated shoji doors leading to what she believed would be the garden.

"It's time, Hime," the silver-haired guy said softly to her, offering her his hand, beckoning her to take it.

_Time for what?_ Sakura willed herself to say, but found her lips were glued hard and frozen, and she could only sit there and watch him, feeling cold and alien.

"It's time for us to go," he repeated patiently and stood up, still waiting for her to take his hand, "we're running away from this place."

_Sakura..._

Her eyeballs darted right and left, looking for the source of the voice. The louder it got, the more she realized that it was coming from inside her skull.

_Wake up, Sakura..._

Her vision doubled, the hand before her multiplied and blurred, the terrified kunoichi reached to the offered before it all started spiraling, creating a red vortex that sucked everything in her sight.

Meanwhile, presently, Kakashi was dreading Sakura's condition - she had got a high fever, and the light drizzle that didn't cease to fall was making it worse. The rain had been falling from midnight until then, and there was nothing he could do about it but sheltering themselves under a great tree. That didn't even help much, for the bellowing wind had been blowing cold water to their position, so Kakashi could only hope that she would get better soon.

_What is real?_

The pain was sawing her head in two, and the vortex was now sucking her in too... the warmth leaving her body rapidly, and faster as she got a taste of nothingness -

Her erratic breathing didn't slow down, her chest rising up and down fastly, and she groaned as the stinging all over her back greeted her second awakening.

Sakura's eyelashes fluttered open, struggling a bit to see in the blue-tinted view but to no avail, and found her upper body was pillowed on thighs, her head cradled in a long, muscular arm, the fingers caressing her chilled face. The momentary immobilized kunoichi tried moving the muscles in her face and it felt rock hard like stone, she couldn't even wiggle an eyebrow or something of the same kind, but knowing that now she's in control of her own body, she settled down a bit. Not so long after, her vision came back, though still a bit blurry.

_It was another dream,_ Sakura told herself, _again, that was very real._

Turning her head slowly, the girl focused on Kakashi.

"Hurts..." she croaked, parched throat hurting as she spoke.

"I told you to close your eyes, Sakura. You didn't, and you fell victim for my Sharingan. Good thing you didn't open your eyes all the way from the beginning..." He didn't continue.

If she did, it would be so much worse. He would never get to see those endless emerald orbs again, swim in the depth of it as he talked to her...

Kakashi shook the thoughts away. _Focus. She needs comfort._

However, the kunoichi hastily freed herself from Kakashi's half-embrace and stood in rage, adrenaline taking control of her senses and mind, though her every joint protested and her stinging back started to hurt even more. Before she could realize it, she had already begun yelling at him.

"I only wanted to help you!"

_"I didn't ask you to!"_

The words slapped her hard on the cheek, and Kakashi seemed to be angry with himself for losing his cool, but she quickly regained her composure and attacked back, her words laced with unbound hatred and a tint of disappointment for her teacher.

"I don't want to be protected! Is that too much to ask?"

Sakura tried persuading him by pleading indirectly - she looked into his eye, her mind chanting the words like a sutra.

_Stop this, please, please say no -_

"Yes."

He didn't even bother to explain, and that had hurt the most.

The kunoichi turned on her heels and started taking an alternate way - a mutiny to take over herself and her will.

"You're not going anywhere."

The commanding tone was it - she was now practically walking away from him as fast as her aching limbs could manage. He wasn't going to use violence on her, she noted, he didn't even move from his former position. _If it was for me and my frailty's sake, thank you, but I'm not buying that. I am an asset of Konoha like anybody else, and I deserve to prove that I do love the village as much as you do._

"I am going."

"Where to?"

After swallowing a lump in her throat bitterly, she replied, sounding almost like she was telling herself that, "To people who appreciate my presence in a team better."

The pink-haired kunoichi could imagine Kakashi threw his hands to the air in desperation from the rustle of movement behind her - she didn't intend to turn and go back, so she didn't give a damn if that guy actually did something while she wasn't looking. She doubted if he actually did, though; he was the guy that never lost his trademark cool even in the most embarrassing and nerve-wracking situations. Not even when Lee had run into him in the middle of the road, proclaiming his deepest and unbending love to his female student, asking for advice about how to tame the fierce beauty - from the distance, it still had sounded so indecent, and her fist had shot sideways and knocked out an innocent Naruto looking at a ramen shop at a distance - her teacher simply said that he only had to show his talents and masculinity, and the latex-clad student had bowed in deep gratitude and dashed away to practice some more.

How could she even remember that moment in a time like this?

She was supposed to hate him, yet she couldn't stand doing so for more than five minutes. The anger would ebb away no matter what.

"It's not that I don't appreciate you, Sakura - "

The kunoichi stopped, and so did Kakashi. He was once again burning holes in her back with his eye, but she didn't know who she was trying to ignore, he had so many personas that she couldn't even bear with any of them at a time.

_How could he think that that was enough?_ She stubbornly thought, and refused to respond.

The light drizzle was beating her skin mercilessly, now that it was numb she couldn't feel a thing - but then the drizzle started falling harder, the wind harsher; it was harder for her to stand straight as it was more slippery, and when she made a move to leave Kakashi be, she lost her footing and fell back - floating for a moment over the ground, her hands searching for something to grasp...

...when a pair of strong arms pulled her back, straight against his chest and held her close. She was then aware of how much their body heights differ, her head tucked under his chin as he silently embraced her, his warmth caressed every inch of her that touched him. Sakura breathed in Kakashi's scent, musky and toned down by the fresh air of rain, the smell of wet earth accented the unique scent as well - as she gulped it in, she felt her lungs burn painstakingly - the pink-haired kunoichi wondered how she could not wake up to the fact that the man before her had that much effect on her. The words flowing past his lips afterwards shook her once more.

"You scared me, dammit," he grunted hoarsely right next to her ear, full of raw emotion, "_Never_ act like that again."

Frozen in his arms, his desperate plea fully responsible for her loss of words; he had sounded so vulnerable for a split second as he spoke to her, he had even cursed - something he rarely did, showed that the worn seams that had been keeping Kakashi altogether had come undone - and a horrid thought of what had caused him to do so made Sakura's heart twist.

He had lost someone important from his past, long ago, in a situation like this.

She reminded him of that loss.

_She was the one who broke him down._

Sakura, without thinking, looped her arms around his waist and sunk herself deeper into his chest, the raindrops camouflaging the hot, salty tears starting to stream down her cheeks, but nothing could do to cover the soft hiccups.

She was, too, one of his precious ones.

_He only wanted to protect me, and I slap it away -_

"I'm sorry, Kakashi... _I'm sorry_..."

The silver-haired jounin closed his eyes, and bent down to kiss the top of her head lightly. Her pink hair was soft, like he had always imagined.

He did nothing afterwards. He just didn't let go.

Sakura held onto him like a lifeline as her hiccups grew louder into sobs, and she bowed her head down so Kakashi couldn't see.

They stood unmoving in the dark as the heavy rain beat at the couple cold and soaked them to the bones, washing away the facade they had been hiding themselves with for too long, inch by stubborn inch.

The dropped honorific was one of the discarded pieces, too.

XXX

"Seems like she's fine enough, hmm?" Sasuke said, sounding astonished, something that rarely made it to his usual bland tone.

Naruto - lying prone on his stomach next to him - didn't answer; his eyes were still fixated on the couple embracing under the layers of cold rain in disbelief, his gaping mouth starting to collect raindrops.

Sasuke and Naruto were walking past, tired after arguing and attempting to get out of the deep old well which finally was fruitful, when they picked up bits of arguments from behind the bushes; they decided that it was best to crawl through the thick bushes to inspect the source - but when they parted the thick curtain of wet leaves after some tiring elbowing and itching and almost-sneezing, their eyes were surprisingly greeted by a bent back and a tuft of silver hair they knew too well - with hands that they, too, knew too well (distinctive by the pearly pink nail polish on the other's fingernails) looping intimately around it.

Naruto was shocked to the core and hadn't talked since the ten minutes earlier - the time when they first discovered and acknowledged the bizarre scene.

"At least she really is in the right hands..."

"She is..." Naruto found himself whisper, and that made Sasuke turned his head in surprise.

_Well, everyone has to mature someday,_ he thought, _looking at the gaping blonde, with no exception of this blonde dumbass over here. _His gaze returned to the couple still finding comfort in each other's arms. _Her, too._

Pain lanced through Uchiha Sasuke's heart that night as he witnessed the embrace his companions shared, how warm they looked, despite the rain slipping into every crevices but never past their pressed bodies; however, jealousy or hurt was not one emotion his heart could comprehend, and there he was, hidden under the bushes and trying to remain inconspicuous as he pondered if there was something wrong with him while the answer, right before his eyes, remained unseen.

Jealousy.

Sasuke said between gritted teeth, "Let's go."

It took Naruto ten seconds full to register the request - startled, he turned to his partner. "Why? We've found them, why don't we just surprise them and - "

"We'll meet them in our next stop, Naruto, so let's just go, okay?" said the Uchiha heir, rage welling in his chest, bubbling and hissing. He concealed it well enough, for Naruto didn't seem to catch anything suspicious. The blonde eyed the couple again, before he shrugged in his position.

"'Kay, let's go."

**XXXXX**

**TBC**

**Author's Note:** My God, I actually manage to update this fifth chapter... I almost got past my bi-weekly estimation, and I'm feeling bad already. The project I'm currently working on (see my profile for further info) is killing me, and I've got like... three days or so before the D-Day:0 -groans miserably-

Oh well, one thing, I still can't believe that this story achieved over 1,000 hits _in less than a month!_ -grin- I am so glad that you guys liked this story, you guys rock! Hugs and kisses to you all, and what's more, this chapter is longer for your patience's sake :D Never thought that Cat is that popular, though, with the rather dry incoming of reviews... I'm growing while I'm writing, as you can see, and this writing experience is still new to me, so do send me a review and tell me if I'm doing it right :) Koruyuu, thanks a lot for the review! It once again made me giddy :D Also to ArishaGinkaze, haven't heard from you in a while, I'm beginning to miss your kind words ;) To the other reviewers or reviewers-to-be, keep them going!

Nevertheless, all the best and mucho love,

-- **Silbi**

**Next Installment:** The soft-spoken came back and hit a nerve, Sakura collapsed, and the other team raced against the time with apprehension.


	6. I: Run Down

**Disclaimer:** This piece is created based on Naruto series, which is created and solely belonged to Kishimoto Masashi - no profit is made from this piece for it is used resolutely for fun. No copyright infringement intended.

**Warning:** No Orochimaru, lots of twists... I'm running out of words to say these things x)

**Author's Note:** Ah, the awaited 6th chapter! -ducks from the rotten apples' attack- Guys, so sorry for the delay! I'm such a villain this time! -cries- Read on, then! More ANs at the end. Enjoy :D

**XXXXX**

**CATASTROPHE**

_**By Silbi**_

**Chapter Six**

Everything was actually going well for Haruno Sakura, in a rainy afternoon like this.

Her lips quivered a bit and she stifled a moan of pain, for the fever had gotten to her faster than she had predicted - but she'd risk anything not to lose the position she was in right then. The girl was leaning comfortably to a tree on her left side, while Kakashi leaning on his right, their backs touching; and no one could steal that precious moment from her.

Sakura had been enjoying every second of it, the rise and fall of their backs together, their breathing pattern in sync; but when the quiver grew more violent she barely could suppress the shaking, she finally gave in to the urge to tell her partner - she shook Kakashi's shoulder to wake him from his light slumber.

A fact she found interesting over the couple of hours resting with Kakashi was he was a light sleeper - the smallest sound of crushed grass could spring him up and alert. That warmed her heart considerably, she couldn't wait to unveil the bunch of mysteries in the solid form of her teacher; though it then brought a surge of bitterness to her, seeing how his obligations to be alert anytime as a ninja really affect his life even in the smallest details.

Can he sleep at night?

_"How can you sleep at night?"_

_"...I dreamt of sleeping..."_

That, the thought, put her to a halt - but then she assumed, perhaps it was because of the fever ailing her, it was making her feeling queasy and meddled with her brain - and she shook the disturbing thought away.

"Can we go now, Kakashi? Maybe in the next town I can find ingredients to make a potion - " she swallowed at the mention of that particular word, it still brought uneasiness to her, and continued in hope Kakashi did miss the halt, "to cure my fever."

Sakura couldn't see him smile, but the crinkle at the end of her teacher's eye line told her that he actually did.

He knew.

Her inner self began laughing madly.

_He knew, didn't he?_

_No he didn't! He was being affectionate._

_...I didn't recall him doing anything that far..._

_Well okay, but that was vague, right? Then again how could you suspect something foolish enough like this, for God's sake?_

That was reasonable.

The guy brought himself up carefully not to slip, and he offered her his hand. "Let's go, Hime."

The pink-haired girl felt herself blush at the suddenly given pet name, flattered, eventually raising her hand to accept the beckon - and her hand stopped dead in track.

Her eyes widening in horror, she looked at the silver-haired jounin standing in front of her, raindrops welling in the valley of his palm as he waited for her.

"You..." she found it hard to speak as she scooted backwards, helping herself getting away with her hands slipping in the wet mud, her mildly stinging back digging into the tree bark, she needed escape God she had to _run_ -

"It's time for us to go," Kakashi said softly, simultaneously with the line Sakura's brain brought back to account, her scrambling wildly in the thick, slippery wetness.

Finding props from the big tree she had slept onto, she brought herself to her feet, her limbs shaking from both her illness and her disbelief. The silver-haired jounin didn't move a muscle, or didn't move in terms of aiding her; Sakura wondered if he was actually there for he was unbelievably inert as she stammered her words.

"You've... been having the same dream from the start..."

Sakura almost screamed in horror when a shadow removed itself from a tree bark behind her teacher, and carefully it straightened until it stood in full height, standing in an almost human form - she finally did with all of her might when it moved soundlessly behind Kakashi, merging into him in a blink.

In that fateful blink, it all suddenly made sense.

Kakashi wasn't himself these times, because something was inside him all that time, taking control.

Watching.

_Almost in the outskirt of the forest -_

Still sprinting to their next meeting point, limbs and muscles being pushed like pistons, Naruto and Sasuke were focusing on different things in mind, and nobody had said anything since their taking off from the place where they discovered Kakashi and Sakura sharing an embrace under the rain that hadn't stop falling. They were so determined to arrive to the place early, no one stopped when another slipped their feet and fell to a puddle of mud; they knew that unfortunate one would catch up with the other without losing his pace, and they had to get that next town hundreds of kilometers away no matter what. That reassuring idea kept them focused, though at one point, Naruto was startled out of his thoughts - it didn't affect his running, but it was brought to Sasuke's attention still.

"What?"

"I think I heard Sakura scream..."

The raven-haired boy mildly shook his head and looked back to the path before them, deftly avoiding pools of dirt and water for possible quicksand.

"Yeah, think I'm imagining that again? When will you believe my intuition?"

"What can I say after you said that for the third time in this hour?"

"Well, the first one turned out to be a trampled bat, and the second _was_ my imagination - "

"Don't say 'why don't we give this a try?' because I won't, logically, after what we found the first two to be."

The blonde jumped over a tree log, landing with a big splash and a final agreement. "Maybe I'm imagining after all..."

_About time you say it, dobe._

_The unidentified clearing, somewhere in the forest -_

"Ironic, right?" Kakashi said, eyeing her - those eyes weren't his anymore - with an emotion she found was making her ill at ease.

She spat cynically, "What is?"

The corner of his eye crinkled again. "The team split. Just the two of us are here."

_To think that I once adored that crinkle very much, and I still do, I require myself a bash in the head._

The hot pain hit her nerves again, and she touched the spot where it throbbed only to have it doubled, on which it felt blazing hot between the icy raindrops. The kunoichi dropped to her knees, watching Kakashi watching her in pain - _you like what you see?_ - and when the waves of nausea crashed her brain, the familiar darkness drowned her once more as her senses dulled and forgotten in due course, the black waves crashing and clawing at her toes, up, up and over her head.

XXX

Tanemura Chiyo was a forty-year old maid, an inn-keeper, holding the task of running a big inn all by herself after her husband's demise four years ago. She undoubtedly did a terrific job at that, having permanent guests as the result of keeping her place tidy and as homey as possible, also as the result of maintaining a good landlord-and-guest relationship with anyone who stayed. Having said that, we could also say that she had met every kind of guests one could possibly have, for her inn offered not only a place to stay but also a diner and a bar to stop by at - the widow herself believed in that fully, but the confidence didn't even come to cross her mind when on a rainy evening the oddest couple that she had ever seen showed up on her doorstep.

The guy, the lady noticed, was mysterious in any ways possible - lower half of the face unseen and dark clothes, she almost concluded that he was some kind of an assassin if not for the sloppy headband bearing a Konoha mark that covered one of his eyes. Chiyo had heard tidbits about Konoha ninjas once in a while as she accompanied her guests having their drinks or meals at the diner, and that fact reassured her that at least they were harmless to the innocent.

As soon as she looked at his face down to the chest, she saw a pink head residing on the crook of his neck, belonging to a gorgeous young lady curling into a ball and shivering miserably like a drowned cat - she didn't think twice to let the dripping wet couple into her inn and gave them the coziest and warmest room she could manage at the moment.

The mysterious guy only smiled with his eyes when they reached their room, and as the door closed before her, Chiyo pondered if she had done the wisest thing by letting them stay.

Reminded of the shivering girl in his arms, she concluded that she had - No one, with that kind of protectiveness over a young lady, would ever do no harm.

Well, not without a cause, anyway.

In the room -

Kakashi studied the room silently, the double bed in the middle of one side, flanked with a tall lamp and a low drawer; a door on the corner, he guessed, led into the bathroom. The walls were cream white, the typical color of inns and motels, with fading dark green shades. He staggered forward, the girl plus the water weighed him down, and deposited her in the middle of the bed carefully.

He traced the quivering lips with his right thumb, and looked at her sweat and rain-drenched face with benign interest. Feeling the burning forehead, he examined her features for any signs of injuries or infections, and pulled back as he found none.

"You'll be fine, Hime." He whispered softly, as if hoping that she heard. Her face twitched a bit, and that's the only reaction he got during his momentary pause.

He reached to her wet clothes and fingered the soggy one-piece on the hem near her knee, mulling over something; before then he slipped his hand between the dampened sheets and the unconscious girl's back and started unzipping.

XXX

Knock knock.

"Unn, wha - "

The sound of a door being opened woke Naruto up instantly; in the blinding morning rays he tried to discern the multiplying figures that slowly formed two people standing in the doorway, talking, but to his waking ears the sound was more like a bee's low buzzing.

"...thank you for the information, Chiyo-san. Good morning." the blond heard the other said, barely getting what he was talking about since it was the very end of his speech that he get to hear.

Naruto asked when the door was safely closed and the landlady had departed, gone back to her daily job of running the inn, "What information does she have?"

Sasuke pulled his dark shirt over his head and down, plopped down on the bed, reaching down to fetch his shoes and put them on as he replied, "That Kakashi-sensei and Sakura were here."

That lit up Naruto completely and he practically leaped like a firecracker from the bed he had been sleeping onto messily - he hadn't enough power to care when they, the night before, had finally made it to the place Kakashi enquired them to go to, and they checked in to the nearest inn and finally claimed the sleep they'd postponed for two days and a night. To know that their other companions had been here too pleased the blonde, for he couldn't wait to see them anymore and start collecting information regarding to the activities they're about to thwart.

"Great! Now we can go on with our job and find them as soon as we've gathered enough info," said Naruto, falling back to the pillows and grinning.

Done donning his attire, Sasuke stood. "Actually, the landlady said the girl - must be Sakura, who else wears red one-piece for mission? - is still in the room. She said she dared to give us this news because she had seen this," the Uchiha heir pointed to his forehead, to the Konoha mark carved into the headband, "was worn by the guy who left early this morning to God-knows-where, the same as ours. She said yes when I asked if the guy was tall, drunk-looking, with very mysterious attire and a mask; and she was sorry she couldn't describe him better, the young lady had been ill, she didn't want to halt them so she gave them a room quickly."

Still in the morning haze, he discerned the long sentence Sasuke gave him slowly. His eyes went as wide as saucers as he recounted, "Sakura was sharing a room with Kakashi-sensei?"

Sasuke collected the articles he removed before sleep and put them back on. "She implied so... Room 17."

The Uchiha heir didn't have to say anything else for Naruto to wake up fully and dress to confront the girl in person.

XXX

A young kunoichi woke up after her longest, deepest slumber to a strangest, yet the most pleasant feeling in the whole universe - naked and warm.

She shifted in her bed, enjoying the warmth created by the friction between her skin and the cotton sheets, real sheets, she hadn't slept on such a soft, moldy comforter like this during the merciless walk -

_"AIEEEEEEEEEEEE!"_

Sakura clutched the comforter closer to her body, gasping for air, an aftershock of finding herself without any stitches of clothes on (save for the comforter), a blush gracing her on the face if not all over her skin, that is, if what was hidden by the white blanket counts.

_W-what the hell? Why am I not wearing ANYTHING?_

_Okay, okay, calm down! Rethink!_

_Uh..._

The memories slipped into her brain like cropped films, all fuzzy and short.

_...groping for dear life in the dark, running and running..._

_...red, swirling red, and more darkness, a hand that she wanted to reach immaterialized..._

_...Never act like that again..._

_...the ground ascended to greet her face._

Oh my God!

She buried her face deeply into the thickness of her blanket as the hotness increased ten-fold and assaulted her face again. When the aggression had died down a bit, she raised her eyes and scanned her surroundings - she looked around and studied the room carefully, she dared not to move (though she really wanted to peek under the bed, she stayed where she was sitting, pulling her knees close and wrapping the comforter tightly around her like an Eskimo) and was utterly grateful that there wasn't Kakashi around to find her in such a mortifying position -

_Hey, hold up - I didn't remember undressing earlier... So that means..._

"Kakashi, what the hell were you _THINKING_?"

_Outside the room, on the corridor two stories below -_

"Did you hear that?"

Naruto looked at Sasuke funnily. "Don't make fun of me on a situation like this, asshole."

Sasuke swallowed his anger quickly, saving the energy to bop the airhead and allow an answer instead. "No, dobe, I think I heard something."

"Yeah, like I'm gonna believe _that_. Anyway, I'm beginning to question my sanity for actually panicking over Sakura like that, she's with a responsible jounin after all, though a perv one... Can we have breakfast first?" A huge yawn escaped the blonde's mouth as he rubbed his empty stomach.

"You do need ramen - did you hear what you said? You let him have a night with her!"

"You made it sound obscene!"

"Augh, that's what you, or _we_ were worrying over!"

"Morning, Uchiha-san, Uzumaki-san, do you both care for a warm breakfast?" a woman called from the diner they were passing, just before the staircase.

They paused, and looked at each other.

Needless to say, they postponed their intention to pay Sakura a visit.

_Room No. 17 -_

"What was I thinking?"

Her hair stood on its end when an unknown voice wondered in response to her exclamation.

"ACK! Don't 'poof' in out of nowhere like that, Kakashi!" Sakura quieted. _Kakashi?_ She was suddenly remembered of the cause why she woke up to the fact that she had been undressed in a state of unconsciousness - "How dare you did that to an underage! You will surely be sent to jail for... for what you did last night!" She yelled at him angrily, all the while clutching the white blankie, almost a lifeline, closer to her unprotected form.

The silver-haired jounin put down a tray he had actually been holding - he had his back facing her earlier, and was now preparing something on the table which, from the delicious aroma wafting to her nostrils, was a full-course breakfast. "You didn't let me explain."

Her stomach rumbled. No birds chirped after or before that, just silence.

_That was SO embarrassing!_ Inner Sakura exclaimed, _My appetite disappeared only at the thought of it!_

_Do you even have appetite?_ She shot back. _You're my consciousness for God's sake!_ Tightening her grip to her fluffy shield, she avoided his totally bamboozled if not highly amused gaze.

"Would you like to have breakfast first?" he suggested rather merrily, as if trying to lighten her crushed morning, and failed miserably. Still avoiding his gaze, though now there were pink circles on her half-hidden face, she replied. "Stick to 'explaining' me the case, okay?"

Kakashi sighed at her stubbornness - he pulled a chair facing the bed backwards and straddled it, leaning on the back of the chair casually after he reached back and brought back with him a plate of steaming pancake with melting butter on the top, drenched with maple syrup and surrounded by strawberry slices.

Her mouth watered instantly at the sight of it. Suppressing the rising growl of her stomach, she repeated inwardly, _Pancake is a distraction. Distraction. Eat later, focus now_. The kunoichi closed her eyes as she mentally chanted the words - and instantly opened them when a piece of warm food with sticky syrup grazed her lips. Sakura was face to face with an offered piece of pancake on a fork, held by Kakashi amiably.

Her eyes flew to his eye. Back to the pancake, she did pause ten seconds or so, but they went back to the jounin.

_Eat_, it was as if she heard him say that.

Sakura eyed the pancake and a slice of strawberry resting innocently atop it, the glistening syrup sent sweet, warm aroma to her hungry senses.

_They can't be evil,_ the other her wailed.

_Eat! Eat! Eat!_

Reluctantly, after a few pushes on the back, her lips parted as she opened her mouth and accepted the proffered breakfast, the half-warm fork slid past her closed lips slowly, almost tantalizingly to the other ninja. Her eyes fluttered close as she enjoyed her first bite of food, real food after quite a long time, the syrup, strawberry, butter and pancake melt soon as they made contact with her tongue -

"Seems that they're good enough... You won't mind if I have some, will you?"

And Kakashi helped himself cutting the five-layer pancake, eating them with the fork he earlier used to feed Sakura.

_That was almost... obscene..._ her consciousness whispered dreamily.

_An indirect kiss!_

The kunoichi changed interesting shades of color, from ivory to pink, to vermilion, and to beet red, which didn't go unnoticed by her teacher.

"Pink looks good on you," he said casually, cutting a new piece of food and forked it along with the strawberry and smeared some syrup and butter, before offering her the new bite. She didn't hesitate as much when she ate that other slice - she couldn't think. The kunoichi just mechanically opened her mouth and ate the pancake; the waffiness had wiped her brain clean, it was so sweet her teeth ached.

_Since this couldn't be happening, why not dive in and enjoy a while?_

She imagined Kakashi smiling at her, and found out that he actually was, behind that mysterious mask. The eye shone eerily, there was something there that didn't read him -

_The shadow!_ Inner Sakura warned her.

Sakura bit down the fresh piece of pancake and forgot.

_Who am I facing?_

That was when her other teammates walked, or rather burst into the room, and their greetings and smiles were wiped off soon as the signals were sent to their brain - there was a naked brunet, staring back at them with emerald eyes opened wide, being fed breakfast intimately by their teacher.

"Kakashi, you're such a perverted old man - "

Before Naruto had the chance to finish, Sasuke held up his hand, signaling him to stop. "Hey, wait a second... wasn't she - ?"

They both squinted, losing this color and adding _that_ color, that shade of eye color can't be wrong, how could they not notice?

_"Sakura-chan?"_

There was their only female teammate on the bed, being fed breakfast intimately by their teacher.

And her hair was jet black.

"Kakashi-sensei... You..."

Naruto was faster than words - "You even deliberately dyed her pink hair _black_?" - for he had already leaped forward, aiming to pounce on Kakashi who quickly dodged (after depositing the half-eaten pancakes safely back to the table, that is), resulting in Naruto having a collision with the forgotten chair and rolled forward along with it into a wall in an angry heap.

Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura watched, speechless.

Can he actually be that stupid at his age?

Sakura, hearing what Naruto had blurted out before he leaped, took the time to examine her new hair color and suddenly looked crestfallen as she felt a huge loss; it was as if her chest was going to burst open. She missed the pink strands she used to consider outrageous already... Her fists clenched on her side, keeping her eye focused on the others in the room, unwanting to accept the fact that had just been shoved into her grasp, unwanting to see what could be reflected by the mirrors on the walls that could defy her belief.

The blonde quickly stood up and dusted himself, kicking the chair away, and the others nearly breathed a sigh of relief audibly when he lunged forward in outrage - Sakura shrieked at the sudden movement - with hands outstretched. _"How dare you - "_

In a blink, Kakashi had already seized Naruto's hands behind on the small of his back and pinning him down with a knee, who at the first minutes grunted and tried to wiggle out of the teacher's iron grip to no avail and eventually surrendered, breathing harshly, his cheek due to his bent position was pressed on the cold floor. _"Let-go-of-my-hands."_ said the blonde, punctuating every word with pure anger. When there was no sign that the vice-like grip loosened, he repeated clearly, "Let go!"

"Not until you hear my side of the story."

Naruto tried hard to move his head, craned it up to look at his teacher's face. "How could you, Kakashi-sensei? To _Sakura-chan_ of all people?"

The blonde suddenly found his hands were freed - rubbing the wrists he stood up carefully, unnecessary adrenaline still pumping in his veins.

"That is what I'm trying to explain to all of you," the jounin started. "Last night there was a storm that did tone down in the morning, but didn't improve Sakura's bad condition; she had a fever that night, and I took her to this inn. As soon as we got a room, I had to remove the wet clothes to avoid further complications."

"So... Nothing happened between you two?"

The teacher shook his head. "Not that I remember."

Naruto and Sasuke glared.

"Um, guys..."

The three men turned to the only female in the room, who was giving them a smile, yet she was exuding a heavy air of irritation. If Naruto hadn't felt ashamed, which he was feeling right then, he would've taken some time to study that red horns protruding from the top of Sakura's head.

"Do you mind leaving this room at once?" she nodded at the direction of the half-opened door, a hand extended from behind the comforter holding a handful of shurikens ready to fly to their directions if anyone dared to say they do, the weapons glinting under the morning sunlight as the kunoichi played with them reassuringly. "Hop hop." she said sweetly, nodded once again to the door, and bearing gigantic sweatdrops on their heads all men marched outside; the last politely closed the door, trying hard not to add fuel to the fire.

Sakura dropped herself into the mass of pillows behind, sighing, still clutching the white layers dearly.

_Now what?_

XXX

As soon as the group had their breakfast and recharged their batteries, they split into their former pairs, though Naruto was seemingly more reluctant than ever, begging to change partners with Kakashi, reasoning that he couldn't bear to spare another time with a certain brunet that didn't know anything about evading booby traps; on the other hand, the brunet brought a stronger view that he 'wanted to experience a different team-up he had yet to have', all of which were brushed aside by Kakashi like they were some kind of quacking ducks.

Sakura and Kakashi went past shops that had just opened, bakeries, and butchers - just then, as they were passing by a glass shop window, Sakura glanced at her reflection, her new black hair.

What color did it use to be?

Rosy pink, bubblegum pink... she tried to remember the color, forcing her brain to, and the downturn of her mood earlier came back. She caught the dark shade of her eyebrows on her reflection and found that they had been covered with black dye as well.

_He's nothing but thorough, isn't he?_

"Pink is an easily distinguishable color, while black is more common." Her superior said, as if reading her mind - she quit studying her reflection on the clean glass panel, but she still stood unmoving in front of the shop. The kunoichi looked past her reflection into the products displayed behind the glass panel, and saw small chocolates, pralines, and truffles arranged perfectly in small silver plates on dark red, velvety backdrop.

"Quite rare, a chocolate shop in a small village like this..." said Kakashi, leaning to take a better look at the displayed confectionery. "Okay, we can start here." At that, he entered the shop confidently, pushing open the door and it closed behind him.

Sakura looked at him in horror - she quickly followed him, yet she didn't come right in, she stood behind the glass door and watching her teacher greeting the chocolate seller amiably. The seller quickly smiled at her as soon as she noticed the young lady looming in front of the door; bearing a defeated look Sakura pushed the door open and stepped inside.

"Come in, young lady! Want a taste of our special praline?" She held out a small plate of rose-shaped chocolate with swirls of milky white, still smiling warmly. Tempted, Sakura reached for a tiny rose and took a bite.

"Well done, you have just tasted our Love Spell!"

The kunoichi nearly choked on her praline.

_Why does everyone keep on reminding me of that botched plan?_

"She loves chocolate," the man next to her nodded at the middle-aged woman, who gave him a knowing smile - Sakura just didn't feel good about the whole happening in the sweet-smelling shop.

_What do you know about what I like?_ She asked mentally to the silver-haired jounin, enjoying the creamy chocolate on her tongue as she did so. _But I do love this one._

Sakura helped herself to walk around the small shop, examining things. They all were related to chocolate, even the marbles were the darkest shade of chocolate. She turned to study the rosy shopkeeper's attire. _Funny, her clothes, too_. The woman was wearing a wide, dark chocolate skirt with a creamy white apron over it, and it seemed that the stain on it was coming from the same substance.

Kakashi sat himself down on a stool in front of the bar-styled counter, playing with one of the tiny boxes tied with colorful ribbons, supposedly containing chocolate as well; and asked, "Do you happen to know something about the upcoming fest?"

The woman beamed and said energetically, "Well of course! That's why I'm making special chocolates to be sold, I'm sure there will be lots of people around... The night festival is well-known outside this village too. You're both visitors, right?"

Kakashi smiled in agreement. "Yes we are... We happen to hear about the news and decided to pay this beautiful village a visit."

Sakura gave a sheepish smile as her elders exchanged words in front of her, and she felt like she was just a baby in the adult's world.

_Toughen up, Sakura! You're seventeen!_

_Right. And they're like, what, thirty-something?_

_Give yourself some credit! That woman, being twice your age, didn't know half the thing you knew about producing chakras effectively -_

_Just as I didn't half the thing she knew about chocolate..._

"Congratulations, young lady." The woman looked at Sakura sharply, who was secretly cleaning her fingers from the chocolate leftovers during the heated dialogue in her brain; and being talked to while doing so was like being caught red-handed doing something really nasty, in her case, sucking the creamy sweetness off her fingers. Again feeling like an eight-year old the kunoichi pulled her fingers away, now fully paying attention. "Um... Pardon?"

"You've got such a charming husband! I hope you both will enjoy your honeymoon here, sweetie," she winked at Sakura from behind the counter.

That got faster to her system than the realization that she had just dropped her chocolate, which earned a gasp from the other woman.

"Oh - " Sakura quickly kneeled and took the half-bitten praline off the floor, feeling totally flustered and clumsy, and apologized right away. "I'm terribly sorry..."

She was. The kunoichi in disguise felt so bad her heart ached. No one but us saw that accident -

Her, the shopkeeper, and - ?

Turning to Kakashi, her mentor, she found that he had been watching from the stool he's sitting at, not missing a thing.

Did he see the wink, the newlyweds prank?

Fear tickled her back as the eye, she realized, wasn't portraying any emotion - just dead, blank, endless.

Blink.

The eye went red.

Blink.

It was deep brown.

The raven-haired girl watched in shock, caught off-guard, and felt the air was pressuring her and squeezing her insides slowly but surely to suffocation.

Her 'husband' didn't say anything in response to her fault.

_Shadows... Inside Kakashi..._

The kunoichi figured out the loophole.

"Sakura?"

The chocolate almost leaped off her fingers again. The heat from them starting to melt the creamy dessert off in her hand.

"Y-yes?"

"Why don't you stay here and wait for me while I look around?"

_Huh, what? Hell no!_

"Um... okay."

Her lips seemed to have another opinion.

He turned to the shopkeeper. "Ma'am, can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, how may I help you?"

"Please show her around while I'm gone, I feel bad leaving her already - hopefully it doesn't bother your day." The jounin added, smiling from behind the mask.

"Oh, of course not! In fact I was thinking of closing the chocolate shop early as I want to take a walk around before the carnival starts, so nothing has actually changed in my plan. Off you go, young man, you don't want to keep her waiting!" The chubby lady shooed Kakashi away, and the doorbell dinged as the jounin pushed it open and stepped out.

Seeing his retreating back, the brunet had a dark premonition culminating in her chest - she rarely believed in her feelings; yet when the lady gave her a cup of hot chocolate as a 'wedding compliment', she couldn't help but remembering, as the cocoa swirled in the cup, the anomaly reflected from Kakashi's eye.

It had happened twice, and she could still conjure the happening vividly in her mind - one was before their departure on the field, and another had just taken place. Could she really believe in those two events, as the only one who had ever seen it? The kunoichi knew very well she lacked of evidences to confront the man in person, and she knew better than telling her other teammates about her hunch; thus, so far she only kept it to herself.

_But - how long can I stand this for?_

The burning issue was taking up a good ninety-percent chunk of her brain, and that wasn't good enough if she wanted to survive in this mission - she could get killed, die foolishly as she pondered what was actually going on, she wouldn't have that - yet every time she found herself wondering and questioning it over and over again and couldn't bring her mind off of it.

Sakura was sure she had seen it coming, the shadow, and disappeared into Kakashi's body; from thereafter, he was different.

_Was it really my imagination?_

_It could have been, but -_

The mental war was cut off rather hurriedly and awkwardly when the woman took a seat on the stool next to her, and asked her with bubbling interest, "So tell me, young lady - how does he look behind that mask?"

**XXXXX**

**TBC**

**Author's Note:** It seemed that the homework has taken its toll on me this time (and I got past the bi-weekly schedule as well! How much worse can it be?) But then again it gave me time to work on the loopholes of the plot, hopefully they all made sense now that we know Kakashi's possessed x) haha, don't think he's gonna be _that _OOC, feeding Sakura strawberries (but still I'm highly hoping that he would -wink-) Um, this chapter is rather transitional past the beginnings, but I hope you'd bear with me and give me comments, critics, or advices... It'll be nice if you also tell me which part do you like, but my first and foremost hope is that you enjoy the story :) Nuff for now and see you on the seventh chapter!

**Sneak Peek:** Sakura finally got the chance she'd been looking for and unveiled another mystery, while a certain brunet was getting anxious.

**9.4.06** This has just been revised at the same time with the update. Not much, I've just repaired some stupid things so you didn't miss anything.


	7. I: This Way

**Disclaimer:** This piece is created based on Naruto series, which is created and solely belonged to Kishimoto Masashi - no profit is made from this piece for it is used resolutely for fun. No copyright infringement intended.

**Warning:** Be careful of those twisted twists, they're all here in the seventh chapter :D

**Author's Note:** This seventh chapter was supposed to be posted on April the 7th (seventh on the seventh, I just think it's cool xD) but my plan failed miserably, and all I can do is apologize to you all... So, here it is, the seventh on the ninth.

**XXXXX**

**CATASTROPHE**

_**By Silbi**_

**Chapter Seven**

The easiest way there was to put a certain pink-haired (that, at the moment, had her hair dyed black without her consent) now raven-haired kunoichi into a nerve-wracking situation was as follows: Leave her high and dry in the middle of a flock of desperate housewives.

"You're only seventeen? And he's _thirty-three_?"

A series of feminine gasps followed the shocked exclamation.

"Oh my God, that means he's almost _twice_ your age!"

"A pedophile - ?" someone whispered, and the kunoichi raised an angry brow at the ill-conceived

Sakura herself was as desperate as she could be - in the middle of excited housewives asking about her and her enigmatic 'husband', it was as if they were sharks gnashing their teeth right in front of her face for food - she even thought she had a bigger chance of marrying Kakashi and having two rabid kids with him (one blonde, another brunet, those kinds that always fight each other and leave the mess to be cleaned by the parents) than of escaping the whole pointless conversation her virgin ears couldn't take. She blushed numerously the whole time, earning devilish giggles from the 'experienced' as they shared their 'escapades' and give her tips on how to 'keep the fires burning'.

"Bet he's almost as old as your father!"

"But you got nothing to worry about - he's got twice the experience!"

All of them giggled helplessly but Sakura, who was sitting on a stool in the middle of them and clenching her fists on her lap, working hard to ignore the itch all over her fingers that wanted so badly to reach for her weapons and shred them into fine ribbons.

_Eh, that's sadistic! That Sand guy must've gotten into your system._

The kunoichi thought Gaara's ability to control sand could be of enormous help that time - she really wanted to be safely kept inside that shield of sand, in a shell away from them all.

"Ah, you newlyweds, I'm so jealous of you!" One housewife sighed from one of the stools circling the table in the chocolate shop, "Yuichi wouldn't even look at me in my new kimono last night, and I'm beginning to think coming to the festival tonight won't be such a good idea..."

Finally seeing something she recognized in the housewife's case - reminded of herself trying so hard to catch Sasuke's attention some years ago - Sakura jumped into the conversation right away. "You shouldn't think that way, Tsumi-san, I do think you're still attractive," said she, meaning every word. She did, because as she said those reassuring words, she looked at the elderly woman and saw a matured beauty instead of a stressed wife in a mid-life crisis.

The kunoichi tore her gaze off the lady and looked at herself.

_Real skinny limbs,_ she noted mentally, _narrow hips_, she unconsciously felt the said part, _and..._ she looked at her bosom, and after a minute or two, sighed desperately. _Gosh. What I'd give to have something of that kind..._ and she eyed the full ones that belonged to the elder woman surreptitiously from behind her bangs, carefully not to get caught eyeing those... said part.

She then desperately wanted her pink hair back. If her hair were pink that time, at least she had something to be proud of, something distinctive... In black, she looked just like any women in town - but that was just her forgetting that she had another good point that the other ladies silently envied. Her deep emerald eyes, not too big to look childish and innocent, but small and clear like a doll's.

But that's just not the point this time...

Tsumi huffed and slumped further, accentuated her ample breasts that were overflowing from over her tightly-wrapped obi (much to Sakura's discomfort and jealousy). "That's very kind of you, sweetie. But I'm not convinced enough to make an appearance." As the lady performed a light stretching of her muscles, the kunoichi suppressed the rising premonition that the elder lady might have caught her ogling her stuffs and did that on purpose - had the lady not say anything at all and give a foxy grin, that might have been true.

_She didn't anyway, be nice, won't you? This kind of thing is important as a newbie._

_What do you know about being a newbie?_

_You know, first impression is a priority and the rest is up to you._

"That would be such a pity if you miss this one-night fest, Tsumi-san!" Sakura quickly replied, and then felt a surge of embarrassment for sounding too enthusiastic... at least in her opinion she did, though no one said anything about it - but the slip of evil that made an appearance in Tsumi's grin made her want to take her words back.

"I think it'll be such a good idea if you come too... How about this: if you do, I'll drop by and have some fun." The elder woman added with an unreadable gaze at her.

Eh?

"Tsumi-san, I don't think I can make it tonight... You know, um, I'll have my husband waiting, he's out to do something and if I'm not there at the inn to welcome him - "

"Leave a note or something that you want to have some fun too! Right, ladies?"

"Right!" Other ladies cheered and cried in unison, made Sakura narrowed her eyes and scooted back a bit.

_This is not good._

"Um, Tsumi-san..."

_Why am I suddenly feeling jeopardized?_

The elder woman looked at her, shiny eyes and all, and took the kunoichi's hands into hers. "Please?"

"Well..."

"You shouldn't miss this once-in-a-lifetime fest too, Sakura-chan, for you won't be staying here long..."

"But I don't have clothes for the occasion - "

"We'll take care of that, Nitta here will lend you something from her bottomless cabinet," Tsumi nodded to a unique-looking lady next to her - the blond hair and the stylish looks really matched Ino's, and she thought Nitta would be a reflection of what Ino would become in the future, though this older version of her looked paler, the skin more translucent - "...It'll mean so much to us. I think your husband will be pleased if you come with us." Tsumi finished with a wink.

Surrounded by those housewives, all staring at her with hopeful and eager eyes waiting for her answer, she could only say: "...okay."

The shopkeeper bent forward and said in an undertone, "Don't forget to bring your husband, too."

"You're soooo evil!" A lady next to Tsumi pinched the shopkeeper's forearm as they all laughed heartily.

"Can't help it, ladies!"

They were all so kind towards Sakura, but she concluded sometimes they could be evil.

_Especially when they want something out of someone... they're experts._

_Quit it and help me out! Now what did they say before - don't forget to bring your husband? They meant Kakashi?_

_Admit it, he's hot, full stop. They can't wait to get their claws all over him. I myself am deeply intrigued... what's behind that dark mask? Sexy lips and unmarred skin?_ The other Sakura wondered, actually voicing her own imagination she'd conceived from having an eyeful of the silhouette of his face for five years already, more or less, and she was pretty confident with her memory.

Wait. She's supposed to be his wife now, was she really going to let him be thrown into these... these _predators_?

_Then by any means I'm not gonna -_

_Just go with the flow._

The careless advice didn't do her any good. She just wanted to freak out, go back to Konoha and apply for a mission that didn't include getting undercover and kick some assassin's butts in real missions.

XXX

_Later on, in a ramen shop next to Tanemura Chiyo's inn -_

The three Konoha ninjas were sitting on a round table, all nursing their cups of ocha seriously.

Kakashi turned to the dark-haired ninja. "Sasuke, what did you get?"

"Two weeks ago was when the first unexplainable occasion took place - some attentive sellers described tall guys in dark clothes who'd made their appearance in the Town Square, where most of the villagers gather at whenever there was a special occasion - and that was the starting point of other oddities following right after."

"Naruto?"

"People, especially ones who had routines at night of crossing Town Square or working near it, started to disappear and still haven't been found yet, so people began pointing their fingers on superstitions. They believed that it was because of an evil doing, and intended to keep the festival going so the evils will keep out. The place where the villagers believed the evils must stay, which is also the most likely place to keep something big unseen was - "

"The Forest of the Fireflies." The team minus Sakura said in unison. Afterwards, they stared and grinned at each other in satisfaction over their new finding.

"Perfect! Now now... Oi, Grandpa! I want a large bowl of ramen, lots of soyu and chicken please!" The hungry blonde hollered to the old guy behind the desk, who then gave him a thumb-up.

"The Forest of the Fireflies... Our next issue." Sasuke sighed, and drank his chilled ocha.

Kakashi's eyes glinted with a mischievous spark that soon disappeared behind the steam as he helped himself to finish the extra-sized bowl of hot ramen.

_Nitta's residence -_

"The Forest of the Fireflies?" Sakura asked, wincing, trying hard not to move a millimeter as her hair was involved in a scalp-removing acts of twisting the dark, shiny locks into an immaculate bun.

"Yes, it's believed to have fireflies so beautiful you won't remember them after you've seen it," replied Tsumi, who was holding a handful of hairpins to keep the hair in place.

"Also believed to be the center of all the evil things..." Nitta whispered, and looked down to her lap and interlaced fingers. She looked even paler than she had been in the chocolate shop, and in the dimness of the room she looked rather ghostly. Nitta was sickly pallid.

The kunoichi directed her eyes, the only thing that she could move at the moment - as her head was firmly held by three ladies, Tsumi sticking hairpins into her hair, another holding the stock of accessories, the other was simply holding her in place before a big mirror - to the seemingly anxious lady. "How so?"

"Don't you know? They've taken five people already, I'm truly against tonight's festival - "

"Hush, Nitta! That's just a rumor! Bad luck if you spread those nasty gossips to visitors," Tsumi cut off, and busied herself back to her former activity. "Don't listen to her, Sakura, she was just terrified of the fact that some villager went past that forest to go someplace else and haven't come back here yet."

"You're generalizing things, Tsumi," the pale lady said in mild surprise, sounding rather accusing. "You _did_ know that something did happen in that forest."

But none of them minded Nitta, for Tsumi and the other two ladies had released Sakura's now elaborately made hair, turned her around to face the waiting flock of women in the room; all of them held their breaths as they saw the astounding youthful beauty in front of them, now looking like an elegant princess ready for a stroll in a special night - the hair was perfect, with all the right accessories holding the twists, the emerald stones dangling from the ends of thin chains of her hair piece glinted under the dim light together with her riveting eyes.

"Um... Do I look weird?" Sakura asked nervously, as the ladies were taking in her new look intently, yet saying nothing in response. She fingered the black fringe on her forehead and tittered, "Haha, I knew that my forehead is so wide..."

_Hey, why are you babbling?_

"...But thanks for doing my hair, ladies."

_Uh, _go_. Just get the hell outta here._

"My God, Sakura-chan, what are you talking about? You look gorgeous," breathed Tsumi in awe, virtually touching the hairpins she herself had stuck to the pink hair, admiring her work of art.

Sakura found herself pink on the cheeks, being given a compliment from a lady whose beauty she at first envied, "Thanks." said she.

The elder woman clapped her hands. "Good! Now, the kimonos please..."

As if on cue, other ladies were suddenly gathering around the young kunoichi, already bringing a set of kimono, each were of vibrant colors and Sakura found them all desirable. The young lady had never seen such beautiful patterns and materials all belonged to only one person - the only kimono she had was the one to be worn in an undercover mission, one she kept at Tsunade's for fear of having it torn or one thread pulled - and there she was presented all of the kimono in any patterns and colors she could imagine of.

"She'll look best in these!" proposed one lady, bringing a set of yellow kimono decorated with bamboo patterns of silver threads with dark blue obi.

"You're making her look like a corn, silly! This one!"

"No, these - "

"That clown outfit?"

Sakura helped herself to sit on the bed next to Nitta, who seemed all that bland (but hey, at least she didn't try to get closer and force you into those multi-layered hell-descendants) but spared her a regretful stare. The kunoichi stared back in question.

"Just don't get near that forest, okay? For my sake." The pale lady put her hand on Sakura's lap. To the kunoichi's surprise, it felt so cold that it made her flinch. Looking into the other woman's eyes, what she saw wasn't just some kind of prank - it was all fear.

Tsumi pulled Sakura away and stood her in front of a mirror, trying to match the colors of her features with the kimono in her hands in the reflection, effectively cutting their talk before the brunet could even answer. Nitta watched them in hurt, and pulled her hand back to her bosom.

XXX

_In the evening, at the Tanemura Inn -_

"Whew, it's such a long day! My back - ngh - hurts," Naruto groaned as he stretched, and fell into the couch where he quickly initiated his beauty sleep, as stated by the soft snores following right after, slowly making a crescendo into pig-like grunts.

Snort.

"..."

Snort. "Mmm..." Burp.

The other occupant in the room started feeling restless and irked, and he start drumming his fingers on the table to drive away his irritation.

"Haha... That's what you get for laying your hand on _my_ ramen..." And he snorted some more.

"D'oh!"

He was obviously dreaming.

At one point, his roommate took his left sandal off and aimed dangerously accurate to the slobbering blonde's head - the black footwear kicked him out of his light dream and he came rolling down the couch. Pulling himself up with a swell on his forehead, Naruto's angry bellow had had Sasuke laughing his face off -

"Bastard! I'll kill you, Uchiha!"

...until the blonde had begun bearing down on the other guy, and the laughter died instantly.

Meanwhile, on the higher floor of the inn in the other's team room, far from the bloody war downstairs, Kakashi frowned silently upon a rather crumpled piece of paper in his hand. He read them again and pondered the meaning, why the writing looked as if it had been scribbled in haste and left to be found on the bed.

_Kakashi-sensei,_

_I'll be waiting at tonight's festival. The ladies treated me well and they're nice, so don't worry._

_-Sakura-_

The jounin reread them a couple of times, turned it over, repeated the process, and still hadn't found the information where he was supposed to meet her.

He shifted his head protector up and focused the red eye upon the paper in hope of finding a secret message of some sort - the words became fuzzier, but when the red haziness cleared and he didn't see anything different, the silver-haired jounin opted to study the message all over again. He read the first line aloud. "Kakashi-sensei, I'll be waiting at tonight's festival."

Kakashi-_sensei_.

The air temperature around his neck suddenly dropped to zero.

Shoving the paper into his pants' pocket, he reached for his discarded vest and departed without a word.

"Don't try to get that rotten sandal near my head again!"

"Feh! Better than yours, at least they don't _smell_ - "

"Mine don't either!"

"Naruto, Sasuke, change your clothes. We're having a day off, so have some fun."

The couple turned their heads to find their teacher, and found that he's already gone.

_Two hours (or so) later -_

"Have some fun?" Naruto jeered, squatting next to a huge basin filled with goldfish, swimming to and fro carelessly as if they hadn't been put there to be caught and paid for - well, their ease was reasonable, for no one had caught any of them since the festival started - the net must have torn open just before the goldfish could be transferred into small plastics, and the fish found its niche back where it belonged while the person at lost cussed and cursed, just the perfect description of what Naruto was going through. He had paid for the third time for the third catch, yet his luck didn't seem to get better at all. "What did he mean by _'have some fun'_? Does he have fun at all?" he muttered, plunging the net into the basin and concentrated on one particular fish, before with a flick of his hand he caught the unfortunate fish between the net.

He smiled victoriously and he waved it up in the air - yet not even three seconds after the success, the net tore open, in which occasion the goldfish found a way back to the basin. "What? That's called cheating!" The blonde accused angrily, waving the broken net and aimed it at the seller's head. "You're trying to collect dirty money from this?"

The brunet eyed one net, bent down and dropped a coin into the small cup containing golden coins, and dipped his own net.

"Hah, betcha don't even have the chance to - "

Sasuke yanked a plastic bag from the gaping seller and quickly dumped the fish into the bag. Smirking, he took the plastic bag with him, followed by amazed exclamations and unbelieving stares as he made his way through the shoal.

Naruto's fists balled, his veins pulsing angrily as he yelled at the top of his lungs up to the heavens - "INJUSTICE!"

Still smirking, the brunet slipped his hands into his pockets, the plastic bag made low plopping sounds as the water and the fish inside rocked, colliding with his thigh as he walked away. As his smugness slipped away, he momentarily felt that something was not there, something, someone that was supposed to be there with him, bugging him and calling him.

Sakura.

The more he thought about it, the more the Uchiha heir realized that he had somewhat grown attached to the persistent, if not obstinate pink-haired kunoichi - his mind drifted back to his genin days, when Sakura and Ino were those love-struck teenagers trailing behind him, pushing and persuading him to date one of them (and they had always insisted that each of them was better than another, starting a cat-fight and then become lost in their own world as they battled for the 'prize' that had walked away without a slightest care). Those two had been amusing to say the least, actually, so he didn't react much and waited until they lost their interests in him. The brunet had almost been sure that they had, for he'd seen for quite some time now Ino trying to catch a certain chuunin's attention (whom he thought was more interested in his chess pawns), but then, being in the same team with Sakura made it possible for him to see that the girl still had that indiscernible look towards him.

That counts as something.

_Right?_

_Why would he care if she still had that feeling?_

Sasuke bumped into someone, and quickly apologizing to the person he raised his head and his eyes that had been fixated on the dark, damp ground - and there, on the far side of the festival, standing under a lamppost, the bright light was reflected by every strand of her hair, her face incandescent against the backdrop of ink-black night.

He was staring at her, and kept staring until it came to a point when it was supposed to be rude.

The raven-haired ninja was stunned, forgetting the need for breathing for a moment and it heightened the loss of his alertness, his ability to think straight - he sucked in a deep breath, and felt the cold air freezing his lungs. He saw that her eyes were scanning the sea of people nervously, unaware of his presence yet, and wondered who was she waiting for in that gorgeous kimono, black silk with silver and light blue butterflies woven onto the fabric and secured with a wide crimson obi, also made of silk.

_Do you know how much I like you, Sasuke-kun?_ The confident voice bounced back into his skull as he was reminded of one particular day when he rejected her offer of going on a date - he remembered all that she had said, they all came back in a dizzying rush - and for some reason, the young man felt that it was too late for him to regret it.

So much, she had said when he hadn't replied. So very much. And then she smiled. The kunoichi showed that she wasn't hurt, but he knew that deep inside her heart had torn open. _I'm not angry that you turned me down again this time, because..._

Her gaze fell upon him, and right then it came down crashing on Sasuke that he was falling for her.

_Someday, I'll make you like me..._

XXX

Searching eyes scanned the crowd, and in less than a minute, the gaze fell onto a raven-haired lady with green eyes. The lady was gorgeous, those emerald eyes cast somewhere far away, and she was standing there alone.

"Hime..."

_How can that girl look so much like her?_

He avoided the angry exclamations as he parted the crowd painstakingly, reaching to the lady that was the mirror of his past.

XXX

A girl rocked back and forth on the balls of her sock-clad feet, making soft clacking noises as the wooden sandals collided with the stone ground, and she was biting her lips in anxiety.

_Will he show up?_

_After that corny letter? You do the math: A letter plus an anxious jounin equals catastrophe._

_Since when did I ask for your opinion?_

_Hah! Can't beat me with that!_

She tried to swat a moth that landed peacefully on her hair with mild irritation.

"Ask for permission before you land!" she hissed menacingly, "I don't want another hour of pure hell - _do you?_"

The harassed moth flew away shakily, and looked for another source of light that was friendlier - at least fire only burns and don't swat.

The kunoichi looked down, and saw two kids with balloons hanging from the back of their obi - they were dumb-struck with horror - one had his forefinger frozen half-inside his nostril, and another was in the brink of crying, tears welling in her innocent eyes. She gulped down her nervousness and tried to lighten up the situation by giving them a (somewhat nervous) smile, that had actually came out as a menacing smirk - and they ran away as fast as their stubby feet could, wailing for their mommies.

"What, kid abductor?"

"Call the police!"

Hearing the mutters all around her, she pretended to admire her shiny wooden sandals, trying hard to shake her fringe forward so they could cover a good half of her face.

"That didn't seem to be a good idea..." the kunoichi muttered, and quickly gave her back to their direction, avoiding attention.

She pretended to be bored and looked around, went back to searching a person who might be the only one who wore a sloppy headband and a mask, and thought the possibility of him coming without them all.

_Maybe I'll see a red eye amidst all of these..._

Instead, her eyes met a pair. Ones that she had been familiar with, ones that always exuded coldness and deep grief.

When her breathing suspended, a hand touched her shoulder, startled her and reminded her of breathing.

"Hello, Sakura-chan."

She dared not to look over her shoulders. She already knew who it was.

The other Kakashi.

XXX

Sasuke felt his fists balled, the rage bubbling like molten lava in his veins when he saw Kakashi came to her, parting the mass of people with ease, and touched her shoulder lightly. She didn't turn, she only stared at the brunet, staring through him as if he wasn't there.

_Why?_

XXX

Slowly, with both of his hands on her shoulders, he turned her to face him. He released his light grips on her, and Sakura tried so hard to conceal her relief.

"Kakashi... _sensei_."

She lifted her chin and looked him in the eye daringly.

The silver-haired jounin gave a masked smile. "Don't bother with the 'sensei', Sakura-chan, without that I'll still consider you gorgeous."

Yeah, right.

"Thanks."

_Help!_ her mental alarm wailed.

_From whom?_

Shifting her gaze slightly, she found that Sasuke was still there, staring deeply at her - no, _them_ - her and Kakashi. Kakashi followed her eyes, to the spot where Sasuke was rooted at, and everything stopped around them for a split second before the silver-haired jounin pulled her hand roughly and took the shocked kunoichi away from the massive sea of people, making their way through them so fastly she couldn't stop and say sorry to the ones she collided with. He, on the other hand, didn't seem to care.

Sakura turned and tried to look for Sasuke amidst the people standing and passing by - which was a very hard task, her being smaller than anyone else in the crowded space made her have to stand on her tiptoes with her wooden sandals - and saw that he, too, was on his move; Naruto joined the picture, talked with the anxious brunet, and soon followed him going after the two.

Still being dragged away, it was almost like a rollercoaster ride, the lights moving and leaving long trails like falling stars, the hubbub muffled her ears as they went further and further into the woods, away.

XXX

"How did you cheat on the fish-man like that, man? Teach me the trick, I want to settle some old scores!" Naruto added grudgingly, and punched the Uchiha heir on the shoulder.

"I found her."

"Sakura-chan?"

"And Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto seemed unaffected by his curt answers, since that was how he always behaved. "Good, then. Where are they going to?" the blonde said, following Sasuke's gaze. The brunet was already advancing them furiously.

_"The Forest of The Fireflies..."_

XXX

_"Ow!"_ Sakura screeched as she was being thrown against a tree bark, the rough skin making small scratches on her hand as she tried to pillow herself with them. The kunoichi looked up, and immediately regretted doing so.

Her teacher, chest falling and rising in tune with his deeply taken breaths, was looking at her intently, the eye burning holes on her.

She suddenly felt cold. Her hands flew to her thighs, where she usually strapped her kunais, and bashed her head mentally against the walls when she remembered that she had disarmed herself prior to the makeover at Nitta's, not wanting to share them the fact that she was a kunoichi, and that all of her weapons were safe and secure in her bag under her bed.

_Fuck._

_Why am I checking my weapon? It's my teacher! Or..._

She'd seen the eye for a couple of times before to recognize it again now.

It wasn't.

The low intakes and outtakes of breaths coming from Kakashi heightened her fear, and it made her flesh crawl when he moved closer.

She shrieked when he rammed his fist into the tree bark, just next to her face, and silence enveloped them as fireflies poured over them like fireworks, glinting in eerie almost-green light, and flew into different directions around them, circling.

Done gathering her courage, she hissed to him, "You are not Kakashi," she began, repeating what she'd said before but not believed, her tone increasing, "and I knew it all along, and I'm stupid enough to let that slip - now what do you want taking me here?" At the end, she was going back to that pattern of yelling at him at the top of her lungs.

Gulping in lungfuls of breath, Sakura wondered how her outrage could suck all of her energy and left her feeling hollow.

_I wasn't mistaken, right?_

_Were you?_

The dark-haired kunoichi didn't know what more to expect when his features softened, and he brought up his hand, smoothed his knuckles against her cheek - she felt wet warmth and smelt a coppery tang wafting to her nostrils, it was his _blood_, she noticed as she saw the wound and the wood splinters etched to his bleeding knuckles - "Hime," he said so softly, like he'd do to a lover, "this was all for you."

It was familiar, yet strange in other sense.

_Who was this Hime he's talking about?_

A surge of jealousy crossed her features, and she wondered who had the guy in front of her, whoever that was, addressed his feelings to.

_I'd die to be in her position..._

To be loved was all she wanted.

From Uchiha Sasuke, all she got was ignorance. The single fact hurt her the most.

_Whoever got his attention must be very lucky_, she'd used to think.

Then, she realized, apart from all the coldness and bitterness she'd been experiencing, there was always that one person who cared for her, helping her get out from that well of despair and giving her all that small attentions, but that was all that she had wanted, all she'd ever wanted in life.

That moment was the time she discovered her building love for her teacher.

What's keeping her from further minding it was those big question marks, who was he? What was behind that mask? She was facing all of those that very night.

She wanted to run away from her teacher that seemed to turn into a psycho every second passing, but the thing she wanted the least was to die of hunger in the middle of a God-forsaken forest without weapons in a borrowed kimono, so Sakura stayed where she was, between Kakashi's arms - his palms were pressed onto the tree - imprisoned and deep in thought.

With him, it was always riddles.

"What do you mean by that?"

Looking deeply into her eyes as he spoke every word slowly, as if wanting her to memorize every line, the man began, "There... was a princess."

He opened his head protector, still keeping his close proximity, and revealed his other eye - she was staring at two red orbs, the color swirling like lava, and once again Sakura was mesmerized.

"She was - still is - my Hime... and I had been sworn to guard her life, though that meant sacrificing mine."

_No_, she said, when a rush of images swept her brain - a young lady clad in an intricate kimono behind a shoji door of a hidden house, a pond in front of it reflecting silver moonlight from the full moon, a silver-haired samurai on one bended knee on the other side, his head bowed - _no, stop..._

What he said afterwards made Sakura want to shrink into her minds and disappear.

"For you I'd kill, and I had once before."

Battling her consciousness - if she still had it - that was pulled by those crimson eyes, she was troubled to find the words. "I can..." _if that makes sense_, "...I'll help you find your Hime, if you want, but - "

_Let me go first!_

Before she had the chance to blurt that out, the guy in front of her, keeping more than she could imagine, spoke once more.

"I'm Kakeru, and I was sent to collect information by occupying Hatake Kakashi's mind."

It all came back to her like a tidal wave, the night she tried to make him tell the truth, the pink potion, the blurriness in the morning, both had loopholes - it was all wrong. The sudden change of personality, the flirty wink, those lilting words... they hadn't fit at all to Kakashi's image because it was _a whole different person_.

"Who did - ?"

"Uchiha Itachi, the eldest Uchiha heir."

**XXXXX**

**TBC**, mufufu.

**Author's Note:** I think from now on I'll write this AN thing at the end of the chapter... That's one. Two, if you have read my profile, you must've known about that one-out-of-a-hundred incident (to you who might have not, it's how many people reviewed - and still no difference, though the number of hits has crawled higher... I'm puzzled, really.) Well, I can't say that I'm not disappointed, but again, I'm already grateful for you reading Cat and bearing with me :) Sorry if the update plan is messed up because of that. In less than three months I'll be facing my third grade of high school, and that's another factor of my delay. Those reviews have been my salvage when I'm on rock-bottom.


	8. Interlude, Part I: Criminal

Um... Sorry?

-squeaks under the assault of a variety of rotten apples and tomatoes-

**Disclaimer:** This piece is created based on Naruto series, which is created and solely belonged to Kishimoto Masashi - no profit is made from this piece for it is used resolutely for fun. No copyright infringement intended.

**Warning:** Blood and gore, not much though... This whole chapter is set in the past; hopefully it doesn't confuse you all.

**XXXXX**

**CATASTROPHE**

_**By Silbi**_

**Interlude, Part I: Criminal**

Moonlight fell in rays around them, as red interlocked with green. Apprehension coiled in Sakura's gut as time staggered forward, leaving her there, static.

_Uchiha Itachi. Kakeru in Kakashi. Information collected. Rustling trees. A glimmering pond and a small house. A kiss._

Dots in the red swirled, and she cared for nothing more.

(Rewind)

(Tape rolls)

(Play)

"Have you ever heard of Shadows, Kakashi?"

A little kid with silver hair stopped performing sloppy jutsus with his hands, his attention now focused on a wistfully smiling old man. His grandfather, apparently, from the admiration and respect that shone from the kid's eyes.

The kid shook his head in mild bewilderment.

The grandfather patted the boy's head gently. "Ah, your father wasn't even born that time, a long time ago, if it really happened that is..." the old man chuckled as he said that, as if reveling in his grandson's bafflement.

"What's the story?"

The little boy sat next to his grandpa who kindly smiled, who then drew a breath to start an almost-fairy tale. His voice reverberated with reminiscence, and as if on cue, the little one listened more carefully, as though he could catch the image it conveyed if he did.

"Once upon a time there was a princess, the only daughter of Sawarada clan..."

XXX

"...who, despite the luxury as a royal family member she had, was tired of being forced to do lessons she terribly hated, but couldn't do anything in fear of disappointing her parents - "

"Is she pretty, Mother?"

A little girl was curiously glancing at her from her lap; those beady eyes pleading for an answer. She smoothed her hand lovingly across the top of the little girl's head as spring wind caressed their skins comfortingly, the scent of flowers enveloped them on that balmy evening.

"Yes, sweetheart, she was gorgeous - and you know what? She has the same hair color as you do."

Emerald eyes stared back at her with awe as the daughter held her breath, and then asked, "She did?"

"Mm hmm, the shade of cherry blossoms in full bloom..."

The woman picked up where she had left off, and the girl listened.

XXX

_A small house surrounded by sakura trees, late in the afternoon -_

Cherry blossoms in full bloom swayed as wind played with their pink petals, carrying with it their sweet, heady scent; as well as a thousand petals, taken away from their flowers to be cradled lightly by the gust of spring air, one lightly flown through a half-open shoji door and landed soundlessly next to a young woman.

Alone in the small house, sitting just before the open doors was Sawarada Sakura, who was intently watching a small group of birds pecking on seeds on the ground merrily.

"Ah," she mumbled lazily, "what am I supposed to do in this place alone? Father sometimes can be too hard to understand." The pink-haired girl resumed her position of sprawling on the tatami mat, a pillow behind her neck, in order to continue her seemingly endless nap.

'You can take a catnap anytime you want there, Sakura-chan,' her father had said three days ago in the dining room, right after a silent meal. Her mother was pouring him a cup of green tea, and the sound of water hitting the porcelain filled the room for a moment. 'And you don't have to take koto and dancing lessons as well when you are staying there.'

She had inwardly squealed for those two had been her most-despised lessons, and to avoid having to experience them again she would do almost anything - though much earlier she hadn't had that much choice, being an only daughter she was. She hated it when someone told her what to do about making her own music, how she moved her own body, or how she expressed herself. They had been the only escape she had - the luxury other than the freedom in breathing.

'But you may not leave that house under any circumstances until the end of the week.'

The statement following the blessing had shocked her - how was she supposed to live without having anything to do? Was she supposed to _hibernate_?

'Is that understood?' her father had questioned her, before she threw out those impudent and somewhat ungrateful comments. It was almost rhetorical, the question was, for the way the steely-eyed man inquired had sounded as if he wanted nothing but a yes... It's not like he would listen to other answers anyway.

_One week without those confines_, a voice whispered in her head. _No one to tell you what to say, how to behave, what to eat, what to wear -_

"Yes, Father. I understood."

The list would have gone on and on, and she was more than willing to put it to an end.

As the consequence, three days and soon to be three nights she had spent with dying enthusiasm; and worse, she was reminded that she still had four more days to go. Sakura watched the sun moving closer to the horizon as she waited for her maids to knock lightly and serve her delicacies, the golden light teased her eyes, its warmth slowly lulling her into a sleep.

She felt like she was half asleep all the time. She wondered if those two maids with her felt the same way too, taking care of someone feeling as lackluster as she was.

"Home," she mumbled into her kimono sleeves she slept on, followed by the soft pattern of her slowing breathing.

_Sawarada residence, at the same time -_

"This matter will not escape my attention so easily, Sawarada," said a man perpetually, and the addressed man wiped a thin line of sweat over his eyebrows with the back of his hand, though his cold facade and the warmth of the room hid the act of nervousness well. They were both sitting cross-legged across each other, only separated by a tea set, each cup was half-filled with green tea.

"I am not going to sell my daughter to..." Sawarada found himself muttering under his breath, unfinished when he realize he had just spoken what's in his mind, as his eyes met the other's. That other guy smirked ruefully, un-crossing his hands and put them down to his lap.

"To an evil guy like me?" he finished, and Sawarada glared because a big part of it was undeniably true. He just didn't have the chance to blurt it out yet. "Sawarada Soushi, do you believe in what you've said, what you're going to say? That I intend to involve your daughter in a cheap bargain? You must've valued her more than that."

Sawarada Soushi could've sworn he had heard him chortle.

"It's not my place to decide what is best for her - it is for me to help her choose, and guard her decision. Therefore, your offer is unacceptable."

"Though it means to an end to your small reign?"

How badly Sawarada wanted to wipe off that righteous smirk off of that snake's face with violence - then again, the man not commencing anything to annihilate him and his country was something he should be grateful of - he knew that the man had the power. A headless king wouldn't be that useful to a developing country.

That, however, didn't mean that he would bend to the other's will that easily.

"I assure you, Uchiha-san, that it will be unnecessary to give it a try. I have another business to attend to, if you'll excuse me."

That excuse was bordering on an order - that _could_ have been an act of someone inching nearer to a nervous outburst.

Masked perfectly behind that politeness and that fierce exterior, of course, Uchiha thought.

"Until then, Sawarada-san," Uchiha brought himself up slowly and made his way out. As he opened the door, he turned, smirking, to the eyes that had been boring holes on his back. "Till the time you acquiesce my offer."

The raven-haired man, long strands kept in a low ponytail, walked out languidly and slid the door close behind him.

Sawarada Soushi fisted his hands on his lap and bit his lips, contemplating.

On the other side of the door, a young man waiting outside raised his head, a bit startled after looking at the tatami pattern for so long. "Brother?" his voice was tainted with uncertainty.

"Let us go home," the older one said. Drop the subject, the tone actually ordered. "You needn't worry. She will marry you - in due course."

The young brunet's face was unreadable as he nodded an approval, his mind straying somewhere else to a memory of a pink-haired lady wandering alone in the backyard; and another of a little girl, long pink fringe hiding her eyes from him, sitting and playing koto with stubby fingers pensively.

She was smothered with luxury, a spoiled brat, she was; there was no need for her to have bonds with people, in her father's opinion.

Being in a similar position, the difference being the crucial fact that he didn't have to be a king someday - if his older brother chose to take the role - Sasuke too was spoiled badly in an attempt to cover the childhood memory gaps his uncaring parents left.

Uchiha Sasuke always gets what he sees.

At the small house, Sakura woke up to find that the sun had disappeared behind that wide stretch of horizon. She sighed in disappointment, and still feeling hazy from sleep, she dragged herself into the room and closed the shoji door.

XXX

_The small house, the following day -_

Having brought herself to the back porch of her temporary cage, Sawarada Sakura couldn't resist the urge to lean on the wooden joist and enjoy the peaceful view she had come to memorize too well in only three days and three nights - back at the big house, she hadn't had that much time to take things that passed her view into account, every minute of her day had been well-planned and the word 'recess' hadn't even made it into her schedule - it was the only outdoor recreation she was allowed to have, which was the view of the pond and the small garden.

She could catch the sunset there, and she imagined how beautiful it would be if it was full moon. The moon would be reflected perfectly by the pond, the silvery shadow rippling as she dipped her hand in the chilly water, the trees rustling and the crickets singing...

The wind whipped and shook the trees harder, cherry blossom petals falling like rain. The young princess narrowed her eyes as the pink petals were blown, some against her cheeks, and she brought up her long-sleeved arms to cover her face.

As the wind quieted, she lowered her arms and found that on her right had already sat a man, pensive.

Sakura meeped in shock and quickly quieted herself with the sleeves of her light yukata - the man didn't seem to realize her being there, however, seemingly fascinated by the sea of cherry blossom petals covering the ground - she was, too, seeing pink completely blanketing the place - some even were floating listlessly on the pond over the swimming kois. While he seemed to totally ignore her being, Sakura couldn't even bring herself to make him acknowledge the fact that he hadn't only trespassed on a private place but had also made himself comfortable without even asking whose property he was comfortably sitting at.

She shook her head. _This place doesn't even belong to me, it's my father's._

_And they say I'm too rational to have an imaginary friend... Talk about an imaginary stranger that will not talk to me._

The curious princess stole a glance to her side, watching from the corner of her eyes.

_What's with the mask?_ she thought. _And the garbs, unlike those common samurais I've seen..._ she couldn't help but scrutinizing the guy's attire, finding it very interesting - sleeveless black shirt that followed the strong lines of his body, and she could finally find the haori she first thought was missing, the top of his kimono, tied around his slim waist - before her eyes could study him any further a thought tore her gaze off him in an instant.

_What am I doing?_

A thousand of principles she had learned, repeated and practiced during her daily lessons rained on her hard - not to look at a man's eyes directly while speaking or while being in the same room, only speak when she was spoken to - all that taught her to behave like a princess she was.

_God, my father's gonna kill me if he knew._

_If he knew,_ a voice in her head whispered devilishly. _If._

Sakura shook her head in embarrassment and, slowly not to produce sound, inched away before her ribcage spring open to release her furiously beating heart.

That simple, soundless act caught his attention this time.

Still trying to calm the pounding in her ribcage, she was downright flabbergasted when he addressed her casually, as if he had known her for quite some time. "Hime?" he had inquired softly, as if attempting not to scare her away.

_Kami-sama,_ she trembled inwardly. She had never been that affected only by the sound of her name on someone's lips - it wasn't even her name, it was her royal title, almost like an epitome synonymous to her name.

She cursed inwardly for her foolishness had urged her to send her maids back to the castle to bring her 'her koto and a collection of literature for her to spend some quality time with'. She wouldn't even think of that pointless errand hadn't she been that desperate to get out of an act of watching the sun's movements across the sky.

_Hime. Princess._ He had known she was one.

_Who else would be addressed as 'Princess' in this environment?_ she muttered inwardly, and as she had been taught, she answered politely without rising her eye level from her lap. "Yes?"

He moved closer to her - she inhaled sharply in fright, catching a whiff of musk and something spicy she couldn't quite name in the surge of air through her nostrils - and reached forward to take a cherry blossom petal she didn't even realize had perched on the top of her head.

_Not an imaginary friend. I'm not delusional after all._

"...Thank you," she mumbled almost inaudibly, being in close proximity with this stranger didn't leave enough space in her brain to think of something more elegant and such.

Stranger.

A mildly shocked expression crossed his visible eye, another was covered by a head protector - did he not have much or did he not want much to be exposed? - when she backed as far away as she could and hissed, "Who the hell are you?"

No, he's not an assassin, not intending to be if he's one, the thought that she could have been killed because her lack of alertness made her skin crawl, and she looked timidly at the guy who was still sitting on the same spot he had been since ten minutes ago. Not wanting to show weakness, the princess gathered her courage and looked back at him in defiance as if challenging, all the while trying to scoot backwards to her room and prepared to dash and grab a dagger kept under her futon. A dagger that her father had entrusted to her, almost as a symbol that she was independent and could take care of herself, and that danger was always near the royal family member.

This petty fear shouldn't scare her away, she thought. She was the daughter of Sawarada Soushi, the bravest man in the country that she had idolized since God-knows when, and she wouldn't disappoint him at times like these.

The tension cracked when the stranger chuckled, and dissolved into a heart-warming laughter.

Her fingers instantly flew to feel her face for any trace of dried rice or soyu, and feeling none under her panicked ministration she could finally relax a little. The laughter, however, kept on going, enveloping her in familiar warmth.

She froze when what came out wasn't what she expected, or what she would have ever expected - her mouth fell open in the most unladylike manner, her jaw hanging on its hinges as if avowing her shock.

"Tsk tsk... Such assertive language coming from those beautiful lips."

XXX

"Soushi..."

"Yes, Mikage?"

"Have you informed your daughter that her guardian might have arrived this afternoon?"

"You did not tell her she was going to have one?"

"Mikage, Sakura is a big girl. She is twenty-one, our daughter would've known how to act her age, don't you think?"

When his wife didn't answer, Sawarada Soushi began listing the fastest ways to communicate with his only daughter - when he found none was faster than the twenty-four hour mail he turned to Mikage for suggestions, and realized that his wife had taken with her her bathing attire and had gone to the bathing chamber.

"Women..."

"I heard that, Soushi."

The man shook his head. Never underestimate the power of a married woman. Ironically, no universal law he couldn't bend but this one - while practically his wife had that advantage of being a smart woman she always was, and married to a powerful man no less.

"If you still want my forgiveness, you know where to find me," she trailed off, and finally left to take the shower she craved.

Over the five-minute period walking to the bathing chamber, Mikage's mind flew back to the conversation she had with her husband two days ago, concerning the safety of their daughter in the outskirts of their region - she had wanted to go after her only daughter and stay with her until the end of the week, but Soushi decided against it, insisting that without her he would lose his anchor.

_Such a sap_, Mikage thought, smiling, _a very sweet one. Sakura, for having a soft spot for your father, I apologize._

After agreeing not to follow her daughter to the small resort, Mikage had insisted on sending a personal guardian to look after their only daughter's well-being, and still she pushed him to tell her though Soushi had assured her that he had known just the right man and had already sent the man to the house long before she had the idea.

"Why would you want to know?"

"Why wouldn't I?" she had responded dryly.

"I don't have the knowledge."

Mikage gave him a hurt look, partly annoyed, and from the amount of control he sensed on his wife's face he knew she was trying hard not to lash out and give him a good punch across the face or two and knock some sense into him.

"I just want to know if it won't be a wild-goose chase that I'm going to go on, if anything happens to Sakura."

Her well-thought response silenced him effectively.

"Han'nin Kakeru, that was his name on the battlefield." was Soushi's response to his wife's quizzical and unconvinced expression, and Mikage found that there were edges of admiration in his tone when he told her his name. Later, the admiration slowly seeped into her system as well as she was being uncovered the facts of the young man's life surprisingly early yet outstanding career - at the age of eighteen, the young man had just turned eighteen the week before, Han'nin Kakeru had received the admiration and envious stares from all of his peers being the youngest member of an elite team that had worked on various high-level missions requiring the most brilliant and courageous men to do the job - all of which he had finished with distinction.

"That is impressive," she had exclaimed after hearing the short biography, and smiled wistfully at her husband. "Now I know I needn't worry so much, having someone to keep an eye on our beloved daughter."

But that nagging displeasure, albeit extremely minute, stayed - as well as the name, Han'nin, that resounded in her head and begging for attention, just like any other dangerous name did.

_Han'nin... Criminal._

She stopped mid-track, feeling that she was being followed. Recognizing the sound of footfalls and to whom they belonged, smirking in victory, she opened the door leading to the bathing chamber, and left it for her husband to close behind him.

XXX

"Back. Off." Sakura bit tersely, feet stepping backwards tentatively, carefully looking for a way to escape the man's twenty-four-seven surveillance on her daily life she had came to realize began on his subtle arrival.

"Hime..."

"I said back off!"

Can't, his eyes silently told her. "It was a direct order to keep an eye on you and keep you at an arm's length."

"I never heard of that last part!" the pink-haired princess shot at him, dashing with extremely narrow steps due to the length and the burden of her kimono. Sometimes being a royal family member is such a hard task to do. She hated, loathed those click-click-clacking wooden sandals she was to wear whenever she should go outside the royal courtyard, and she hated dragging the long end of her kimono here and there while it caught all that dust and dirt on the floor - she saw no point on moving around with the traditional clothes on.

"Alright, I should keep you in sight. That doesn't differ that much."

"It does!" she retorted childishly, defying her age and her appearance, and she hobbled to her private chamber, after going around in circles and passing the room at least three times - in her kimono, no less. She could really use some futon and pillow after hours of ridiculous hiding and seeking...

The guy who had been playing cats and mouse with her huffed indignantly, and she waited for him to curse or show a sign of anger - something she was looking forward to see, since a new presence, his presence in this house was making her feel uncomfortable in her skin, the wide stretch of forest around her suddenly looked more auspicious than frightening and she couldn't fight the urge of stepping into her sandals and stroll under the warm sun, an attempt which had been halted by the source of her anxiety himself - and received her ultimate goal of his departure.

Eventually.

Her patience was wearing thin, and the man hadn't even broken in a sweat. All of her attempts seemed like a warming-up to him.

"I won't act against your father's command." The man replied silkily as he leaned onto the wooden walls - she heard a soft 'thump' as his broad shoulders made contact with the hard material - and crossed his arms as he balanced on one foot, an ankle over another.

He sometimes looked wary, his face unreadable as she watched him observing their surrounding at the corner of his eye. At those moments, Sakura was forced to feel the same wariness, afraid that something might jump at her from out of the blue and do unimaginably wicked things like... like _rape_, for instance...

She would shudder, and then would pretend that she hadn't just been scared out of her wits by her own overactive imagination.

Half hidden by the shoji door separating her from the lanky guy leaning on the wooden walls not far from the door, Sakura stuck her head out a bit to check out on him. The princess saw him looking elsewhere, his mind occupied, though the air of alertness around him had never changed. The golden sunrays played across his features, and she admired how such masculine creature could reflect them so beautifully, his eyes and silver hair gleaming.

A beautiful stranger.

_A beautiful jerk. Duh._

_Adhering to command does not make him one._

_No matter how I judge him, he was the one who's supposed to look after me until the end of the week, the one directly chosen by my father._

The princess contemplated seriously whether she should strangle her father or give him a bone-crunching hug for providing her with the man he'd honored and trusted with his life.

Clearing her throat first, making the other's head turn, she then asked. "What's your name?"

Mildly surprised, the guy looked deeply in her eye - in that visible eye she thought she had seen a mischievous glint, promising an evil deed that had yet to be done. Still leaning on the slightly opened door, Sakura hoped that he would answer soon.

After quite a short while that lasted a century to the anxious princess, the mysterious guy stood straight and faced her fully, and standing straight her head barely reached his chin; much to her chagrin because then her glare, if it had ever had any effect on him, would lose some of its edge.

That and she didn't favor looking up to some unknown guy. One of that laid-back and good-smelling kind.

As she was spacing out, he had actually began studying her emerald eyes intently - never had he seen such an enchanting shade, with a tint of almost a sea-bluish color that made his insides do an energetic flip - until the owner shifted back to reality from her half-daydream. Kakashi held back a grin threatening to split his face when that familiar pink graced the princess' face, and it was much harder to maintain his cool exterior after he realized she actually was trying to fight it.

He was not going to lose his cool here, at least not now... _it'll be half the fun_. Let's see what he could do.

The blush Sakura had so arduously willed to be off of her cheeks came back, redder and meaner, when the silver-haired guy before her dipped his head a bit to, she thought, maintain an eye contact with me. Her breath started to come unevenly, and so was her heartbeat - her fingers gripped the doorsill tighter as a thin layer of sweat formed on her palms.

All she asked for was his name.

"My name... is of little importance," slowly he said with a low voice, and his visible eye crinkled as his lips stretched into a wide smile under his mask. Wide-eyed, the princess watched him retreat to resume looming over her, unconsciously displaying a protective manner around her - silent moments passed and he turned his back on her to leave - yet her long, delicate fingers instantly grasped the sleeve of his haori tied loosely around his slim waist, holding him back.

He patiently stood there, waiting for her next move.

Her lips parted, for it was so hard for the words to go past them coherently, and it took some time until finally she could tentatively ask, "What should I call you with?"

The ends of his eye crinkled again as the soft, unseen smile, she imagined, graced his feature. "Han'nin."

She neither made any movements when he pulled away from her light grasp nor when he slid the shoji door close - she did only to pull back as the door finally separated her from the outside world.

_Criminal._

Her brain rewound the occurring scenes, and replayed them half as fast.

Sakura almost pulled at her hair in frustration when she realized how he had treated her like a baby and how pompously he had refused to tell her his name - what, was he afraid that his cover was gonna be blown? Who was he anyway?

"Argh, you stupid arrogant boor!"

The silver-haired man smiled when the wooden wall his back was pressed against rumbled a little, shaken by the young princess' angry bellow, and he leaned back to the cold wall to savor the comforting chill it transferred to his neck and below.

With that, he closed his eyes - only to see jadeite eyes staring back at him, clawing at his soul.

On the other side of the same wall, Sakura sat in silence, lost in thought. Then she dragged her futon to the far side of the room, pushed it until it met the wall, and slept on it with her back flush to the wooden panel.

Eventually, they fell asleep.

XXX

Kakashi opened his eyes to the view of a battlefield.

Everything was moving in slow motion, the dust rising and blocking his view, clogging his lungs with dirty air that drove him to the brink of tears. Samurais, soldiers, everything was there but sound. He wondered idly if he had gone deaf, and started checking his body parts for wounds, though he doubted he would even feel it for he was practically numb.

The hands he brought to his face were bloodied.

Crimson, then a deeper shade of crimson in the form of dried splotches all over his arms.

_Someone behind him - !_

Everything stopped moving slowly - all of the sudden they all were moving at the speed of light. Slashing, cutting through armors, clothes, then skin; the scent of blood hung heavily in the air, the coppery smell of death.

Here in the battlefield everyone dies. The brightest son of a mother, the beloved husband of a wife, the father of little children - one dies surrounded by hopes of living.

He whipped around swiftly and aimed the kunai he hadn't realized he had been holding to his attacker's chest, burying it deeply right under his sternum, blood already spurting out from the newly made wound, a bit to the right where the heart was situated. The person fell like a dead log face forward to the sandy ground.

_Another random kill_, he found himself thinking.

One's lover had just been killed.

A mother had lost her brightest son.

A wife had been widowed, and still she would wait for his return, until the bad news of grief be brought home and send her crying for days.

It might be someone's father. Someone's lover. Here, he died in anonymity, in the hands of Han'nin Kakeru.

God, he didn't even know what was the real name of his killer. His family and relatives would bear a grudge over an epitome of a cold-blooded murderer that covered his back throughout the war, might have passed him by the street and not having the slightest idea.

Kneeling, Kakashi reached the dead man's shoulder and flipped him over to examine his face. His blood froze at the sight of jadeite eyes opened wide in horror, blood trickling out past rosy lips onto porcelain-smooth skin.

_My God - _

The corpse of Sakura blinked at him and reached her hand, blood dripping from the tips of her fingers and down her wrist, a ghost of sickly smile appeared on her face.

"Gah!"

The silver-haired samurai woke with a start, heart pounding painfully and his lungs screamed at the lack of oxygen. Feeling a burning sensation in his chest Kakashi realized he had been holding his breath, and quickly he breathed deep - the air when it was that time between midnight and morning washed down his respiratory tracts and calmed him from the devils of his nightmare.

Another devil, however, might not be that easy to kill. The devil in his own brain. His logic.

_Stop before it's too late._

_No, no... I can't. It is my job. I want to do this. I can do this._

_Quit! Do something else. You're trained in effective assassination._

_I..._

_You can't have a feeling towards the one you're protecting. Her._

Then, simultaneously, he and his consciousness recited an old saying, an oath of loyalty he'd taken thousands of times he could recite it in his sleep - "...not to be involved emotionally with the One..." - though the message was muted, every passing second it became more and more indistinct until it was no more than a low beckoning at the back of his head.

_I might end up killing myself... or the one I'm protecting._

XXX

Sakura woke up to the view of an endless field.

Alone standing in the middle of the blue-tinted field, she felt frail and utterly at loss.

She tripped over something, caused her to stumble and fall forward. Her palms met the ground before her face did, and the feeling of damp earth and crushed grass under her fingers made her shiver. Cold. Breathing white puffs of air, the drop of temperature was then brought to her attention. Must keep warm.

Shakily bringing herself to stand, Sakura wouldn't in a million years think that the earth supporting her under her feet would swallow her. Yet that what's happened.

She let out a muffled scream as the wet ground pulled her in, and to survive she had clawed into the ground around her desperately - but the solid then liquefied, and all around her was now crystal blue, deeper and deeper she went.

Kicking and flailing to avoid sinking into the deep abyss, yet not even moving an inch to the source of light, perhaps just above the surface, Sakura forced her eyes that she hadn't realized had pressed shut all the time - she only sensed everything since the earth opened up and took her in - straining in the glimmering blue and black shadow, she looked around her, every direction, up, down...

...to the pale fingers curled on the end of her kimono.

To the silver tuft of hair dancing in the water that belonged to... _Han'nin_...

Her mouth opened to scream, and bubbles of oxygen escaped her throat, up and out, the dark bitterness pressing her body now forcing to enter her lungs.

Fire butterflies danced underneath her eyelids, even as her eyes close, and she stopped breathing. The princess thought she had.

Sakura gasped, coughed, and woke in her bed, drenched with cold sweat.

Her eyes darted to the door leading to the living room, where there would be a corridor that ended up at the maid's chamber - and almost slapped her forehead realizing that she'd forgotten a terribly important fact.

No. Her maids hadn't come back yet.

Nowhere to go, except...

Her eyes fell at the wall beside her, that had given her a sense of safety throughout the night until the nightmare disrupted her sleep, hoping that she could see through it and find solace from her protector.

Han'nin.

Without giving a second thought, Sakura stood up, her feet trembling at the memory of earth closing in at her, and stepped out of her room to enter another's.

XXX

Kakashi curled on his side, back facing the door as if willing anyone intending to knock to back off and leave him alone, brooding. The series of signs appearing in his dream were confusing him, since all of them were fuzzy and he tried to make sense of them but they weren't clear enough for him to remember, not enough for him to discern the pattern.

_Stay away from her, wasn't that clear enough?_

Stop.

_She'll die._

Please.

_She'll die like everybody else..._

"Stop this," the silver-haired man groaned and pressed his shaky palms to his ears, praying the voice would just go away.

_Just like Obito._

He didn't hear the sound of wood scraping against wood as the door behind him opened.

_"No..."_ he pleaded like a vulnerable child when forgotten memories now tried to settle an old score with his sanity.

"Han'nin?" the voice, using his other name as if in attempt of mockery, touched his trembling shoulders.

Kakashi saw red.

The masked samurai blew up, and he reached for the long katana he kept next to his pillow and lashed out with an animalistic growl, baring his canine to scare the voice away, pushed the person down and put his weight on his knees on the person's sides, after stabbing his katana at the tatami mat an inch away from his cheek...

The red haze before his eyes cleared, and he could now see whose sweet breath was mingling with his.

..._her_ cheek.

It was Sakura.

The One. The one he should protect with his life, breathing heavily under him, eyes firmly shut, lips trembling.

XXX

Sakura hoped this was just another bad dream.

Han'nin had been there, as she had expected, when she entered the room and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible - but she lost the need of moving surreptitiously when she heard him moaning in sleep. Not exactly moaning, but pleading in pain, as if under a nightmarish effect.

On her tiptoes, silently approaching him, Sakura forgot about her own nightmare and thought what could have cracked that demeanor of his and show her this... _fragile _side of him... and stirred something in her heart so.

The princess bent her knees and crouched behind his curled-up body, seeming to shrink in size as his long legs and shoulders were bent, and she was then seeing a little boy experiencing his first nightmare. Her fingers followed the spikes of his hair, barely touching them, and they landed on the spot just in the middle of his shoulder blades. Under her fingers was blazing hot -

Before she could exclaim how extremely feverish he felt and asked if he was okay, he attacked her, his sword now planted firmly just next to her cheek. His weight was pinning her to the floor, knees on either side of her waist, his face hovering over hers, eyes blazing.

Sakura had never imagined that she would be seeing that eyes so soon, kind of regretted it, but soon her thoughts were wiped away as all now was centered to those mismatched eyes.

_Brown and red,_ she told herself inwardly. In case she didn't get to see them again.

A light breeze passing them couldn't seem to get through the millimeter-wide gap between their bodies, and once reminded of his closeness - closer than any of her cousins or any men had gotten - the blush crept back and colored her features from head to toe. Her lips felt too dry they'd crack, and she licked them, and she saw his eyes followed the way her tongue was dragged lazily over the pink skin.

She couldn't say a thing, even when she wanted to, when he pushed himself off of her - and limped out of the room.

Sakura stayed where she was for a full minute, and when the wind blew against her again and Han'nin wasn't there to share the warmth he'd given her earlier, she rolled over lightly to his bed and slept there all the way through the cold night.

XXX

The silver-haired man stood outside, shoulders hunched as he looked upwards. His eyes met the silvery orb up in the dark sky, and his muscles hardened when he felt that familiar tingling at his back.

_Again_, he thought. _Someone is watching us again._

Was this the reason why he had been asked to keep an eye on her?

Easing down, Kakashi rested upon the thin door behind him, his trained ears picking up crickets' song from afar and soft breathing some feet away. The night was peaceful and he should've slept, but no matter how much he wanted his bed that night he couldn't get back in - not with her sleeping unprejudiced on his comfortable cot, open to any kinds of assault. The samurai contemplated on going in and watching over her closely, just in case.

His imagination ran wild when it came into contact with the memory of his earlier encounter with the pink-haired princess - she had not been roughly pushed under him, she had been in that position willingly, her body undulated with him, beckoning him to make his move with that endless jadeite orbs -

He _should_ wait outside. He would.

Lullabied by the soothing feminine breathing, Han'nin closed his eyes and let himself relax - partially.

XXX

The figure lurking in the shadows, loitering, narrowed his eyes. He had been watching from the beginning and he didn't at all like what he'd seen. His fingers had gripped the hilt of his weapon as the scene unfolded before his eyes, but then he restrained himself from doing something that might be extremely foolish.

Not now, he told himself self-convincingly. Soon.

XXX

_Is it a crime to want someone so bad?_

**XXXXX**

**TBC**

**Author's Note:** Long time no see, folks :) Huge thanks to readers out there that have patiently waited for an update... I totally understand if some of you already erased this story from your update list, since the update date is always tentative. Here's the insight into our beloved 'shadow' who invaded Kakashi's head! -grin- The story would support the upcoming chapters, so I hope you do not think of this so-called 'Interlude' less than the normal chapters.

Special thanks to Sunsilver: Don't lose your spirit, cheer up! Here's an update to cure your blues ;)

To artsaffron: Always show up at the very hard part of writing (which is beta-ing myself) and, again, kicked my butt and remind me of my long-forgotten update schedule. Thanks!

To all who have reviewed since the very beginning: Koruyuu, Kyuubi no Kitsune0101, Meadowcroft, SilverGhostKitsune, Tiasha, Romm, ArishaGinkaze, artsaffron, antilogicgirl, sessygirl66, and tixylix... you guys rock:D

And of course, all that I haven't mentioned above but to whom I'm not less thankful. Stay tuned:) Check for story status at my profile, I usually write my rants there.

**P.S.:** Bash me in the head in a review! -wink-


	9. NOTICE

**AN IMPORTANT NOTICE**

_"...and the world I knew receded like an unfinished novel whose story had become overwrought and tedious."_

Oh my, hopefully my story doesn't recede into that state. Or more appropriately, hopefully my world doesn't happen to undergo that condition.

Okay. So this notice is about a delay (I already expected the chorus of 'what, again?' in the background) in the publication of the ninth chapter. Why? Because, people, _I'm going for holiday_! Yay! During the ten-day vacation I'm going to put aside some things, such as my school, the impending catastrophe (no, not the story) i.e. those after-school lessons and XYZ.

So.

I'm not going to neglect this story, _ever_, because I just don't do that anymore. I've got 90 percent of it formed in my brain and 60 percent of it written, so there's no way I won't finish the story. I may update while I'm on vacation, I may not, but I promise there _will_ be an update. Just stick around and, if you're going on one, enjoy your vacation!

I'm going to sit back and feed on your feedbacks. Those I will need to improve my story, and I take any suggestions - comments, critics - just review or PM me, any will do. Those who have sent me those, thank you for your kindness. Also to the 7 people who put Catastrophe in their favorites lists and to the 25 people who wait for an update. Luv you! (e-kisses and e-hugs for you all)

Many thanks. See you around :)

**--- Silbi 1.7.2006**


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